Relative clause: who, that, which, when, where, why and whom
Hello dear visitors
In this course, we will talk about relative clause. we begin with some examples to introduce you to this grammar lesson:
- The man who is with the teacher is my father
- Here is the hotel that my friend visited yesterday
- The city where I live is beautiful
You may notice in these examples that we have two parts in the sentences, connected by a noun. The secont part is called relative clause and the noun between is the relative (it may be a pronoun, an adverb..).
The relative noun is used to give extra informations about the subject or the whole sentence we are talking about. There are differents types of these nouns. We will talk about relative pronouns and relative adverbs.
Relative pronouns:
The relative pronouns are: who, which and that. Who is used for people (humans), which for objects and that for both of them. They are used to tell some informations about the subject, or precise it. Here are some examples:
– The man who is with the teacher is my father.
– The apple that I ate was delicious.
Relative adverbs:
The relative adverbs are: where, when and why.
Where is used to refer to a place, when is used to refer to a time and why refers to a reason. You’ll find below some examples to understand more these special adverbs:
– The restaurant where I have dinner is so calm
– Fortunately there are times when you are in a good mood.
– I was angry at you, that’s why I didn’t call you back
Other relative nouns: whom & whose.
Whom is like the relative pronoun who, but whom is used when we talk about the object of the relative clause. Example:
– The man whom you talk to me about, is my father.
Whose is a possesive pronoun, used as the subject of the relative clause. Example:
– The man whose car is red, is my father.