Relative clauses

Relative clauses

Relative clauses are clauses starting with the relative pronouns who*, that, which, whose, where, when. They are most often used to define or identify the noun that precedes them. Here are someexamples:

Do you know the girl who started in grade 7 last week?
Can I have the pencil that I gave you this morning?
A notebook is a computer which can be carried around.
I won’t eat in a restaurant whose cooks smoke.
I want to live in a place where there is lots to do.
Yesterday was a day when everything went wrong!

* There is a relative pronoun whom, which can be used as the object of the relative clause. For example: My science teacher is a person whom I like very much. To many people the word whomnows sounds old-fashioned, and it is rarely used in spoken English.

Relative pronouns are associated as follows with their preceding noun:

Precedingnoun	Relativepronoun	Examples
a person	who(m)/that, whose	– Do you know the girl who .. – He was a man that .. – An orphan is a child whose parents ..
a thing	which/that, whose	– Do you have a computer which .. – The oak a tree that .. – This is a book whose author ..

Note 1: The relative pronoun whose is used in place of the possessive pronoun. It must be followed by a noun. Example: There’s a boy in grade 8 whose father is a professional tennis player. (There’s a boy in grade 8. His father is a professional tennis player.)

Note 2: The relative pronouns where and when are used with place and time nouns. Examples: FIS is a school where children from more than 50 countries are educated. 2001 was the year when terrorists attacked the Twin Towers in New York.

Some relative clauses are not used to define or identify the preceding noun but to give extra information about it. Here are someexamples:

My ESL teacher, who came to Germany in 1986, likes to ride his mountain bike.
The heavy rain, which was unusual for the time of year, destroyed most of the plants in my garden.
Einstein, who was born in Germany, is famous for his theory of relativity.
The boy, whose parents both work as teachers at the school, started a fire in the classroom.
My mother’s company, which makes mobile phones, is moving soon from Frankfurt to London.
In the summer I’m going to visit Italy, where my brother lives.

Note 1: Relative clauses which give extra information, as in the example sentences above, must be separated off by commas.

Note 2: The relative pronoun that cannot be used to introduce an extra-information (non-defining) clause about a person. Wrong: Neil Armstrong, that was born in 1930, was the first man to stand on the moon. Correct: Neil Armstrong, who was born in 1930, was the first man to stand on the moon.

There are two common occasions, particularly in spoken English, when the relative pronoun is omitted:

When the pronoun is the object of the relative clause. In the following sentences the pronoun that can be left out is enclosed in (brackets):

Do you know the girl (who/m) he’s talking to?
Where’s the pencil (which) I gave you yesterday?
I haven’t read any of the books (that) I got for Christmas.
I didn’t like that girl (that) you brought to the party.
Did you find the money (which) you lost?

Note: You cannot omit the relative pronoun a.) if it starts a non-defining relative clause, or, b.) if it is the subject of a defining relative clause. For example, who is necessary in the following sentence: What’s the name of the girl who won the tennis tournament?

When the relative clause contains a present or past participle and the auxiliary verb to be. In such cases both relative pronoun and auxiliary can be left out:

Who’s that man (who is) standing by the gate?
The family (that is) living in the next house comes from Slovenia.
She was wearing a dress (which was) covered in blue flowers.
Most of the parents (who were) invited to the conference did not come.
Anyone (that is) caught writing on the walls will be expelled from school.

Relative Examples

Pronombres y frases de relativo

¿Qué es una relative clause? Entre otras cosas, es una estructura gramatical que suele dar problemas a los hispanohablantes. En esta entrega vamos a ver por qué.

Una relative clause (oración de relativo) da más información sobre la persona o cosa de la que uno está hablando. Por ejemplo,

The girls who work at that shop are really friendly.

Does the bus that goes to the airport stop here?

Muchos hispanohablantes cometen el error de repetir el sujeto en frases de este tipo. Por ejemplo,

The girls who they work at that shop are really friendly. X

Does the bus that it goes to the airport stop here? X

Aquí van más ejemplos de este error, y cómo corregirlo:

I have a friend who he works at the airport. X–> I have a friend who works at the airport.

Where are the flowers that they were on the table? X–> Where are the flowers that were on the table?

Estas frases son otra variación sobre este tema:

Did you see the gift that I bought it for your mother? X –> Did you see the gift that I bought for your mother?

There are red wines that you should drink them cold. X –> There are red wines that you should drink cold.

Para simplificar las cosas, yo recomiendo siempre utilizar who para personas y that para cosas, aunque en muchos casos también se puede utilizar that con personas. Por ejemplo, no es incorrecto decir,

The girls that work at that shop…

¿Cuándo utilizamos which, entonces?

Hay otro tipo de relative clause que añade información menos necesaria. Por ejemplo, considera estas dos frases:

My brother who lives in Florida is a teacher.

My brother, who lives in Florida, is a teacher.

En la primera estoy diciendo que de todos mis hermanos, el que vive en Florida es profesor. En este caso, utilizo la relative clause para identificar a la persona de la que estoy hablando.

En la segunda estoy diciendo que mi hermano es profesor, y que, por cierto, vive en Florida. En esta situación utilizo la relative clause para añadir información “de paso”, no para identificar a la persona de la que estoy hablando.

En frases que no se refieren a personas, utilizamos which (y no that) en el segundo tipo de relative clause. Por ejemplo,

The companies that do business in Spain are having financial problemas. (That se utiliza para identificar el grupo de empresas al que se refiere la frase.)

These companies, which do business in Spain, are having financial problems. (Which se utiliza para añadir información menos esencial.)

Si todo esto te parece complicado, hay un truco muy sencillo: utiliza which y no that después de una coma.

Resumiendo…

Lo más importante es no repetir el sujeto en tus relative clauses. En general, utilizawho para personas y that para cosas, pero después de una coma, utiliza which en lugar de that.

Ejercicios

Corrige estas frases:

The people who they were at the other table are friends of mine.
Juan works for a company that it’s going out of business.
He watches some shows that they are really good.
This camera has a system that it takes two pictures at a time.
A friend of Pablo’s who he is a journalist lives in New York.
We have some friends who they are getting married next March.

Traduce estas frases:

Ella es una chica que trabaja conmigo.
¿Tiraste el periódico que estaba en la mesa?
Filadelfia, que fue la primera capital de Estados Unidos, es la ciudad más grande de Pennsylvania.
A la mayoría de la gente a la que le gusta el pollo también le gusta el pavo.

Respuestas:

The people who were at the other table are friends of mine.
Juan works for a company that’s (that is) going out of business.
He watches some shows that are really good.
This camera has a system that takes two pictures at a time.
A friend of Pablo’s who’s (who is) a journalist lives in New York.
We have some friends who are getting married next March.
She’s a girl who works with me.
Did you throw away the newspaper that was on the table.
Philadelphia, which was the first capital of the United States, is the biggest city in Pennsylvania.
Most people who like chicken also like turkey.