Relative clauses are great for making longer and more natural English sentences. Learning and using this grammar will help you sound like a native speaker. I will break this grammar down so that you can understand it quickly and easily. Let’s go!
A relative clause is a part of a sentence that gives us more information about the person or thing we’re talking about. (Relative clauses are sometimes called adjective clauses.)
“The old man who lives by the river.”
Who lives by the river is a relative clause that gives us more information about the man.
*Relative clauses are sometimes called adjective clauses because they do the same job as an adjective. They give us more information about a noun.
This post was originally part of a 70-page e-book that I had written in 2019. I changed the format and wrote this post to be a complete guide for you. Full of helpful examples, ALL NEW images, and downloadable worksheets to test your knowledge.
What is a relative clause?
We can add more information to our sentences using relative clauses.
A clause is a part of a sentence. If a clause can function by itself as its own sentence we call this an independent clause.
If a clause cannot function by itself as its own sentence it’s a dependent clause. It depends on the original part of the sentence to make sense.
- I will visit my hometown in Canada this August, it’s much cooler than Tokyo.
Clauses are often separated by a pause when we talk or a comma when we write. The first clause from our example sentence is an independent clause. It makes perfect sense as its own sentence.
“I will visit my hometown in Canada this August.”
The second clause, the part of the sentence that follows the comma, is a dependent clause. It cannot be used by itself as a sentence. It wouldn’t make sense.
“…it’s much cooler than Tokyo.”
What’s much cooler than Tokyo? The 2nd clause depends on the first clause to make sense.
Relative clauses are dependent clauses that start with a relative pronoun like who (whose), that, which, and when, or a relative adverb like where.
What does relative mean?
Relative means related to or connected to. Please look at the following example.
- “They are tearing down the hospital where I was born.”
Here we are connecting the fact that the hospital is being torn down with the fact that I was born there.
Relative clauses are sometimes called adjective clauses because they do the same job as an adjective. They give us more details about a noun. In our example sentence, the relative clause where I was born is giving you more details about the noun hospital.
How to Use Relative Pronouns (and Adverbs)
Please look at the following examples of relative clauses with relative pronouns. Try to identify the relative clause and how it modifies the noun that it follows.
Who (and whom) are used with people
“The man who is wearing glasses is my boss.”
- “My friend who is a fireman recommends buying a smoke detector.”
- “All the people who live in that apartment building complain about the parking.”
- “Everyone who works there loves it.”
In these examples, the relative clauses come before the main verb in our sentences.
What is the relative clause from the first example? “…who is a fireman…” – The relative clause is followed by the verb recommend.
“…who live in that apartment building…” Followed by the verb complain.
“…who works there…” Followed by the verb loves.
“The man who is wearing glasses is my boss.”
What is the relative clause? “…who is wearing glasses…” Followed by the verb is.
Whom
NOTE* We don’t use whom in natural conversation often. For me, it sounds formal. It’s more common to read it in a story or news article. You might see it written like this:
- “There were 3 girls at the party, all of whom had boyfriends.”
In a conversation, it’s more natural to say:
- “There were 3 girls at the party and they all had boyfriends.”
For me, this sentence is more natural in a conversation without a relative clause.
Whose
“I saw a girl today whose hair was blue.”
(I saw a girl today. Her hair was blue.)
Whose is used when our subject uses possessive nouns or pronouns.
* Examples of possessive nouns or pronouns:
– (Name) + ‘s – Brian‘s, Emily’s, etc.
– His
– Her
– Their
- “My friend Irene married a guy whose father was a pro wrestler.”
My friend Irene married a guy. His father (the guy’s father) was a pro wrestler. The word “His” is a possessive pronoun, so we will use the relative pronoun whose in this example.
- “Ricky has a friend whose older brother works at a movie theater. He gets to see lots of free movies. Lucky!”
Ricky’s friend’s older brother works at a movie theater.
When is used with time
- “I like the sunglasses you bought when we visited Mexico.”
The time we visited Mexico is when you bought the glasses.
- “I drove a Jeep when I lived in Toronto.”
At the time I was living in Toronto I drove this car.
The relative adverb where is used with places.
- “This is the beach where I proposed to my wife.”
The beach is the place I proposed to my wife.
Where is a relative adverb in this sentence, it’s making the relative clause where I proposed to my wife.
- “Do you remember the pet store where we saw that cute puppy?”
The pet store is the place we saw the puppy.
Which is used with things
- “Jenny didn’t get promoted this year, which made her sad.”
The thing in this sentence is the fact that Jenny didn’t get promoted. That is the thing that made her sad. - Jason got promoted, which surprised everyone.
- “He had a strong Scottish accent, which made it difficult for me to understand him.”
That can be used for people or things
- “I saw a guy that works in my office at the bank today.”
In this example that is talking about a person. (A guy.) - “The bank is in an old building that used to be a church.”
In this example that is talking about a thing. (An old building.)
- “I went to a store that sells used records today.”
- “The girl that is buying records looks like Jerry’s girlfriend.”
Which and That
These 2 relative pronouns can often be used with the same things.
- “He had a strong Scottish accent which made it difficult for me to understand him.”
- “He had a strong Scottish accent that made it difficult for me to understand him.”
I find the relative pronoun which to be a bit formal, and in spoken English, I use the relative pronoun that most of the time. Please look at these example sentences.
- “The movie which we saw last night was good.”
- “The horse which is standing beside the fence is beautiful.”
*Both of these sentences are grammatically correct (the grammar is okay) but they are not so natural. They seem very formal and I don’t use which this way, the relative pronoun that is a better choice.
These sentences are more natural.
- “The movie that we saw last night was good.”
- “The horse that is standing beside the fence is beautiful.”
When the verb that follows the subject ends with ~ing we don’t need to use a relative pronoun. - “The horse standing beside the fence is beautiful.”
Using the relative pronoun which naturally.
We use the relative pronoun which to add more information to the subject I am talking about.
- “The remake of Dawn of the Dead, which I really liked, was filmed in Toronto.”
I have told you the movie’s name so you know which movie I’m talking about. I want to tell you where the movie was filmed (in Toronto) and I use the relative pronoun which to add more information. (I really liked the movie)
- “The remake of Dawn of the Dead, which I really liked, was filmed in Toronto.”
- “This movie camera, which I borrowed from my friend, cost $14,000.00. I have to be careful.”
How to use the Relative Pronouns THAT and WHICH
Here is a simple way to decide if you should use the relative pronoun which or you should use that.
THAT – If the relative pronoun identifies the subject (it tells you what it is) we use that.
- “The video store that closed last summer is opening again.”
The relative pronoun in this sentence identifies the store. It’s the store that closed last summer.
- “The movie that I saw last night was great.”
The relative pronoun in this sentence identifies the movie. It’s the movie I saw last night.
WHICH – If we already know the subject that the speaker is talking about, the relative pronoun which will be used to give us more information about that subject.
Here are some more examples using the relative pronoun which.
- “The train is late, which means we will probably miss kick-off.”
We know which train the speaker is talking about. It’s the train we will use to get to the soccer game.
- “My father likes to drink 2 big glasses of wine after dinner, which always makes him sleepy.”
*In written English the relative pronoun which will be used after a comma. (,)
- The train is late, which means we will probably miss kick-off.
If another clause comes after the which clause it will also follow a comma.
- The remake of Dawn of the Dead, which I really liked, was filmed in Toronto.
- The zombie make-up, which was fun to wear, took 90 minutes to apply.
The downloadable worksheet will give you some chances to practice using pronouns and adverbs to make relative clauses.
Who, whose, when, which and where as question words.
These words can all be used at the beginning of a question. They can be clearly identified from their relative counterparts because they are requesting information not adding information.
- Who took my shirt?
- Whose shirt is this?
- When did you buy their shirt?
- Which shirt should I wear?
- Where is my blue shirt?
More advanced English pronoun study: Reflexive Pronouns – 16 examples (Free PDF download + Video)
Relative clauses in Action
- The big brown dog that lives next door.
~ that lives next door is a relative clause. It gives us more information about the dog.
- This is the soccer ball that he bought in Toronto.
~ that he bought in Toronto is a relative clause. It gives us more information about the ball.
- My uncle Jim who lives in New York.
~ who lives in New York is a relative clause. It’s telling us more about my uncle Jim.
- The old coffee shop where I teach my English lessons.
- Last Thursday when we went to the soccer game.
Relative Clause position
At the start of this post, I said “Relative clauses are sometimes called adjective clauses” because they both modify nouns.
Adjectives come before the noun and relative clauses come after the noun.
Can I use a relative Clause without a relative pronoun?
Yes, you can. Sometimes it’s natural to omit the relative pronoun in spoken English and still keep the same meaning.
The pronouns who, which, or that can be omitted when they are the subject of your sentence.
Please look at the following examples:
- “All the students who I talked with this morning said that they wanted to have an English speech contest this year.”
This sentence is perfectly fine if we take out the pronoun who.
- “All the students I talked with this morning said that they wanted to have an English speech contest this year.”
Who means all the students, this is the subject of the sentence so we can leave it out.
Another example:
- “I brought the Blu-Ray that you asked for.”
That means the Blu-Ray. The Blu-Ray is the subject of our sentence so we can remove the pronoun that with no change in meaning.
- “I brought the Blu-Ray you asked for.”
Here is another way we can make a clause without using a relative pronoun. We change the main verb to its gerund form. (~ing)
From earlier in the post:
- “All the people who live in that apartment building complain about the parking.”
becomes… - “All the people living in that apartment building complain about the parking.”
- “The horse which is standing beside the fence is beautiful.”
becomes… - “The horse standing beside the fence is beautiful.”
You can’t remove the relative pronoun or adverb if it is not the subject of our sentence. Please look at this example from earlier in our post:
- “My friend who is a fireman recommends buying a smoke detector.”
If you take the relative pronoun out of this sentence…
- “My friend is a fireman recommends buying a smoke detector.”
…it sounds strange. The relative clause is a fireman adds more information about our subject, it is not the subject. What is the subject of this sentence? MY FRIEND.
You would need to also remove the words “is a fireman” from the sentence for the grammar to be correct, but now you have lost an important meaning.
- “My friend recommends buying a smoke detector.”
My friend could be anyone, he is no longer shown to be an expert. The story is missing some important information.
Using relative clauses can make you sound more natural by connecting ideas into longer sentences. We use relative pronouns to combine 2 small sentences into one long, natural English sentence. You will replace a noun or a pronoun with a relative pronoun to make a relative clause.
Example 1: I found a soft drink from Brazil today at a local store. I haven’t had this drink in 12 years.
- “I found a soft drink today from Brazil today at a local store that I haven’t had in 12 years.”
(The noun this drink had been replaced by the relative pronoun that.)
Example 2: Brad was a TV actor. He is now the president of the country.
- “Brad, who was a TV actor, is now the president of the country.”
(In this example the pronoun He is replaced by the relative pronoun who. Their position in the sentence is different because the relative pronoun comes right after the subject. (In this case, the subject is Brad.)
The downloadable worksheet will give you some chances to practice connecting two sentences into one longer natural sentence.
Relative clauses are also perfect for adding more information to your sentences.
Let’s start with 3 simple sentences and then build on them by adding adverbs, adjectives, and relative pronouns. Using this grammar our sentences will be long and natural, they will sound like sentences that are native speaker would use.
Let’s begin with an incredibly simple three-word sentence.
- “The dog ran.”
The order of a basic English sentence goes subject verb object. S-V-O
In this sentence both the Object and the Subject are The dog, the Verb is ran.
Now we can add some more details and make a longer natural sentence to tell a story.
- The big brown dog that lives next door suddenly ran across my driveway. It scared me!
The sentence is much longer than our simple example, but you can see that it still follows the same basic pattern of subject-verb-object.
~The big brown dog that lives next door is a noun phrase. This is the subject of our sentence. It works exactly the same as the dog, it just includes more information about our subject. The adjectives big and brown come before the noun dog and the relative pronoun that lives next door comes after. Both are modifying the subject of our sentence.
The verb is ran. It is modified (changed) by the adverb suddenly with the preposition across to tell us where this happened.
The object now is also a noun phrase, my driveway. *The object was added to our example sentence. In the original simple sentence “the dog” was both the object and the subject. “The dog ran.” We only knew the dog ran, but we didn’t know where or how.
Example 2
- “I got hit by a ball.”
I is the Subject, got hit is the Verb, by a ball is the Object.
Now we can make it longer with more details.
- I got hit in the head yesterday by a soccer ball that my little brother kicked at me.
The subject is still I.
This time we have a verb phrase. …got hit in the head yesterday… telling us where and when we were hit. This is the verb in our S-V-O pattern.
So what is the object? Right! The noun phrase a soccer ball that my little brother kicked at me. The preposition by connects the verb and object telling us who acted on the ball, my little brother, and the relative clause tells us that he kicked it at me.
Example 3
- “Jim likes coffee.”
(Jim is the Subject, likes is the Verb, coffee is the Object)
Let’s go big on this example…
- “My uncle Jim who visited my family last week from New York really likes Brazilian coffee.”
The subject is now the noun phrase My uncle Jim who visited us last week from New York. This is giving a detailed description of Jim. Who he is, my uncle, what he did, visited us, when he did it, last week, and where he came from New York.
The verb is the verb phrase really likes and the object is Brazilian coffee. (Another noun phrase)
Our new sentence has a long subject (11 words) but it’s just a noun phrase and it still fits the basic English sentence pattern S-V-O.
Relative Clause PDF worksheet
Test your understanding of Relative Clause grammar with this FREE 5-page PDF worksheet. Great for teachers and students.
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