adjective/relative clause:

The adjective clauses are also called RELATIVE CLAUSES because they have an antecedent (a noun or pronoun they are related to) and the conjunctions, usually ‘wh-’ words and occasionally ‘that’, are called RELATIVE PRONOUNS.

e.g.

A boy broke the window.                                  That boy was punished.

He was punished.

The boy who broke the window was punished.

‘The boy’ – noun = ‘He’ – pronoun — antecedent (a relative to ‘who’)

Were all the boys punished? = No. Only the boy who broke the window was punished!

‘Who’ in this sentence is not asking any question; it is telling us which boy was punished. So ‘who broke the window’ is an adjective/relative clause and ‘who’ is a relative pronoun.

‘The boy… was punished.’ is the main clause, and

‘who broke the window’ is the subordinate clause – RELATIVE CLAUS

A SPECIAL FEATURE OF RELATIVE PRONOUNS:

The Conjunctions of the Noun Clauses and the Adverb Clauses do not change according to the subject of the sentence or the object of the verb, but the Adjective Clause conjunctions which we call ‘Relative Pronouns’ change their form CASE of their ANTECEDENT —- subject of the clause or sentence, or the object of the VERB in the clause or sentence. depending on the

For more about CASE, please, go to the topic PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

“Who” is used for people in Nominative Case; “whom” for people in Objective Case; “which” for things in Nominative and/or Objective Case; “whose” for people or things in Possessive Case; and “that” for people, animals and things in Nominative and/or Objective Case.

For example,

WHO

This boy is very clever.          He got a prize.

This boy who got a prize is very clever.           [Complex Sentence]

‘This boy’ = ANTECEDENT (relative) of ‘he’ & “who”

‘He’ = 3^rd person singular pronoun in NOMINATIVE CASE

‘who’ = RELATIVE PRONOUN in NOMINATIVE CASE.

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WHOM

This is a boy.               I gave him my book.

This is the boy whom I gave my book (to).    [Complex Sentence]

‘a boy’ = ANTECEDENT (relative) of  ‘him’ & “whom”

‘him’ = 3^rd person singular pronoun in OBJECTIVE CASE

‘whom’ = RELATIVE PRONOUN in OBJECTIVE CASE

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WHICH

[A]

The book was very expensive.           He lost it.

The book which he lost was very expensive.  [Complex Sentence]

‘The book’ = ANTECEDENT (relative) of ‘it’ & “which”

‘it’ = (a thing) pronoun in OBJECTIVE CASE

‘which’ = (for a thing) RELATIVE PRONOUN in OBJECTIVE CASE

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WHICH

[B]

This book is very expensive.             It is very old.

This book which is very old is very expensive. [Complex Sentence]

‘This book’ = ANTECEDENT (relative) of ‘it’ and “which”

‘It’ = (a thing) pronoun in NOMINATIVE CASE

‘which’ = RELATIVE PRONOUN in NOMINATIVE CASE

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WHOSE

This is a boy.               His book was lost.

This is the boy whose book was lost.   [Complex Sentence]

‘the boy’ = ANTECEDENT (relative) of ‘his’ & “whose”

‘His’ = 3^rd person singular pronoun in POSSESSIVE CASE

‘whose’ = RELATIVE PRONOUN in POSSESSIVE CASE

Note very well that the pairs of sentences given above can be joined together in different ways.

One way, for example, is to change them into Simple Sentences:

This boy is clever.  He got a prize.   [two simple sentences] =

This clever boy got a prize. [Simple Sentence]

This book is very expensive.  It is very old.  [two simple sentences] =

This very old book is very expensive. [Simple Sentence]

The book was very expensive.  He lost it.  [two simple sentences] =

He lost a very expensive book. [Simple Sentence]

Under ‘Special Feature’, we are given the examples changed into Complex Sentences using he Relative Clauses just to show how the Relative Pronouns take different forms depending on the CASE of their ANTECEDENTS!

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TWO KINDS OF RELATIVE CLAUSES:

There are two main kinds (categories) of Relative Clauses.  They are:

Restrictive Relative Clauses and Non-restrictive Relative Clauses

The Restrictive Relative Clauses are used when the Clauses are very important for understanding the sentence completely; and the Non-restrictive Clauses are used

when the Clauses are not very important for understanding the sentence completely.

The following examples will give us some clear idea of how and why they are used in a sentence at all:

The workers who lost their jobs are on the dole.

The Relative Clause ‘who lost their jobs’ in this sentence is very important to understand the sentence because not all the workers are on the dole; only the workers who lost their jobs are on the dole.  Therefore, this Relative Clause is necessary in this sentence, and so, it is called a RESTRICTIVE RELATIVE CLAUSE.

All the workers, including those who are not with us now, are given a pay rise.

The Relative Clause ‘who are not with us now’ in this sentence is not very important for understanding the sentence because all the workers are given a pay rise.  The Clause is used just to include the absentees, without which we can easily understand the meaning completely. Therefore, this Relative Clause is not necessary in this sentence, and so, it is called a

NON-RESTRICTIVE RELATIVE CLAUSE.  Notice the pair of commas that separate the relative clause from the main clause.

Let’s see another example:

David’s son who has just done his graduation is going abroad.

In this sentence the relative clause ‘who has just done his graduation’ is Restrictive. How do we know?  It is very simple: the clause is not separated by a pair of commas!

To put it in another way:  David may have had several sons and the speaker is not talking about all of them, but only about the one ‘who has just done his graduation’.

Now see this…

David’s youngest son, who has just done his graduation, is going abroad.

In this sentence, however, the relative clause ‘who has just done his graduation’ is NON-RESTRICTIVE because the adjective youngest gives us the information about which son is going abroad.  The relative clause is used to add some more information which is not at all necessary for the complete understanding of the sentence.  The other thing, related to the punctuation marks, is that this clause is separated from the main clause by a pair of commas.

Compare:

Jane’s father who is a doctor visited us last night.  [wrong]

In this sentence the relative clause ‘who is a doctor’ is wrongly placed as a RESTRICTIVE CLAUSE.  This is wrong because Jane can have only one father; there is no possibility of her or anybody else, for that matter, having more than one father (biological father), but the restrictive clause makes it sound as if she had several fathers and of them one is a doctor and that “doctor father” visited us last night, which is ridiculous and wrong!

Therefore, this relative clause should be changed into a non-restrictive one.

How?  Just by separating it by a pair of commas!

Jane’s father, who is a doctor, visited us last night.    [correct]

Now let’s analyse these kinds from a different angle:

George who has joined us recently is transferred to another branch.

‘who has joined us recently’ = RESTRICTIVE RELATIVE CLAUSE

According to this sentence, the listeners or readers know that there are more than one George in their office, and the speaker or the writer has made clear for them that he/she is talking about the ‘George’ who joined them recently but not the ‘George’ who has been with them for some time.  Notice that the Clause is without a pair of commas.

George, who has joined us recently, is transferred to another branch.

According to this sentence, the listeners or the readers know that there is only one ‘George’ and that George has joined them recently, and so, the speaker or the writer has made it clear by separating this clause from the main clause by a pair of commas.

We are now in doubt as to how to differentiate the Restrictive and Non-restrictive Clauses when the expressions are spoken, but not written down.

The speaker, of course, has to make it clear by saying it with appropriate speech sounds (intonations); and by using the word “that” for the Restrictive Clauses.

Note that “that” as a relative pronoun is never used in NON-RESTRICTIVE CLAUSES.

Finally,

The trees that are marked are to be cut down.

The relative clause ‘that are marked’ in this sentence is clearly a RESTRICTIVE CLAUSE for two reasons: one is, the word ‘that’ is used as a relative pronoun and the other one is, the word ‘marked’.

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