UNIVERSIDADE LINCUNGO

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

HONOURS DEGREE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

ASSIA ATUMANE
BASTIONEL PAULO
CHAULANA CHICO
DÉRCIO CARLOS

RELATIVE CLAUSES

Quelimane
2023
 ASSIA ATUMANE
BASTIONEL PAULO
CHAULANA CHICO
DÉRCIO CARLOS

RELATIVE CLAUSES

An assignment submitted in
Department of Education, in subject of
English Language V by lecturer: Master
Elias A. Chichango

Quelimane

2023
Contents
1. Introduction................................................................................................................3

2. Relative Clauses............................................................................................................4

2.1. Non-Defining Relative Clauses..................................................................................4

2.1.2. Use Of Relative Pronouns.......................................................................................4

2.2. Defining Relative Clauses..........................................................................................5

2.2.1. Use Of Relative Pronouns.......................................................................................5

3. Relative Adverbs...........................................................................................................6

3.1. Prepositions In Relative Clauses................................................................................6

3.1.2. Leaving Out The Pronoun.......................................................................................6

4. Relative Structures With (Whose, What And It)...........................................................7

5. Relative Adverbs...........................................................................................................7

6. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................8

7. References.....................................................................................................................9
 3

1. INTRODUCTION

The present assignment talks about relative clauses. It brings a brief

summary of what relative clauses are and try to explain the two types of relative
clauses, which are non-defining relative clauses and defending relative clauses.

The group try to argue about the components of each type of relative
clauses, their use and conditions.

The group also try to explain what the relative adverbs are, when can
they be used and which environment they can be used, and we also try to explain
about preposition in relative clauses.
2. RELATIVE CLAUSES

(Hughes, 2001, p.216) Says that “Relative clauses can be Non-defining

relative clauses as well as can be Defining relative clauses”.
Writing center defines Relative clauses as “independent clause because
they contain subjects and verbs”.
E.g. The boy who was playing is my brother.

The group understood that, Relative clauses are those that supply us
information or meaning about something or somebody that have already being
delegated to in the main sentence.

2.1. NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

The information in these clauses is not essential. It tells us more about
someone or something; however, it does not help us to identify them or it.
E.g. Elephants that love mice are very unusual. (This tells us which elephants we are
talking about).
E.g.2. Elephants, which are large and grey, can sometimes be found in zoos. (This
gives us some extra information about Elephants).
2.1.2. USE OF RELATIVE PRONOUNS
Person Thing Place
Subject Who Which
Object Who/whom Which Where
Possessive Whose
Made by the group
In non-defining relative clauses, “that” cannot be used instead of who,
whom or which.
The relative pronoun cannot be leaved out, even when it is the object of
the verb in the relative clause:
He gave me the letter, which was in a blue envelope.
He gave me the letter, which I read immediately.
Non-defining clauses can be introduced by expressions like all off, many
of + relative pronoun:

From: The online English Person Thing

grammar, by H, Anthony.

All of + whom + which

Any of + whom + which

2.2. DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

According to Hughes, A. (2001, p.219), Defining relative clauses are
clauses that give us essential information to define or identify the person or thing
we are talking about.
E.g. Elephants who marry mice are very unusual.
In this sentence the group understand that there are many Elephants,
however, it is clear that we are only talking about the ones who marry mice.
2.2.1. USE OF RELATIVE PRONOUNS

Person Thing Place Time Reason

Subject Who/that Which/that

Object Who/whom/that Which/that Where When Why

Possessive Whose
From: (Hughes, 2001, p.219) The online English grammar.
Eastwood, J. (1999) says that “relative pronoun stands in place of a noun.
Who, whom and which can be replaced by that.” This is very common in spoken
English.
E.g. The man whose car was stolen;
E.g.2 There is something that you should know.

3. RELATIVE ADVERBS
Writing center says that “there are three relative adverbs: where, when,
and why. We use relative adverbs to refer to place, time, and reason.”
e.g. “California Pizza Kitchen is where Jack used to order a pizza made with pear and
gorgonzola.” In this sentence, where refers to the place Jack used to order a pizza made
with pear and gorgonzola.
e.g.2 “Daniel remembers when he could eat pizza not made with gluten-free crust.” In
this sentence, when refers to the time Daniel could eat pizza not made with gluten-free
crust.
e.g.3 “Luke does not understand why no one at the Writing Center invited him to go out
for pizza.” In this sentence, why refers to the unspecified reason no one at the Writing
Center invited Luke to go out for pizza.
3.1. PREPOSITIONS IN RELATIVE CLAUSES
Eastwood, J. (1999) says that “a relative pronoun (e.g. that) can be the
object of a preposition (e.g. for).”
E.g. This is the bus that I’ve been waiting for.
E.g.2 I’ve been waiting for the bus.
In informal spoken English we normally put the preposition at the end of
the relative clause as can be seen in the example above.
3.1.2. LEAVING OUT THE PRONOUN
After having read many sources the group believe that we often leave out
the relative pronoun when it is the object of a preposition.
With object pronoun Without object pronoun
The bus that I’m waiting for is late The bus I’m waiting for is late
That’s the man who I was talking about That’s the man I was talking about

4. RELATIVE STRUCTURES WITH (WHOSE, WHAT AND IT)

 Whose: this relative pronoun is used to refer to things belonging to or things

associated with someone.
E.g. David is a writer whose books are sold in his country. They have got a
driver whose wife is died.
The pronouns such as he or it are not used with the relative pronoun.
E.g. We do not say: The teacher who he has a blue car is my father.
It could be: The teacher who has a blue car is my father.
In other cases, the relative pronoun may be omitted, so, the left sentence is
called “Zero relative clause”.
  What: this relative pronoun is used without a noun in front of it.
E.g. the shop didn’t have what I wanted. (= the thing that I wanted)
E.g. what we saw gave us quite a shock. (= the thing that we saw)

This relative pronoun can also be used to give emphasis to a word or phrase, to
make it more important.
E.g. Derek is looking for a job in television. (Neutral)
What Derek is looking for is a job in television. (Emphatic)

 It: we can use it + be + a relative clause to give emphasis.

E.g. The computer gives me headache. (Neutral)
It is the computer that gives me a headache. (Emphatic)
5. RELATIVE ADVERBS
We usually use the words where, when, and why as relative pronoun.
However, they are particularly used in formal English.
E.g. This is the place where the accident happened.
E.g.2 Derek knows when he bought his first car.
E.g.3 The reason why Ben came was that he wanted to see Stella.
6. CONCLUSION
The present assignment done by the third year students, in which was
discussed about Relative clauses, was of course, intended to investigate carefully
and explain the content. Thus, the group comes up with a conclusion by saying
that relative clauses are those clauses that supply us information or meaning
about something or somebody that have already being delegated to in the main
sentence, and can be non-defining relative clause as well as defining relative
clause.
7. REFERENCES
Eastwood, J. (1999). Oxford Practice Grammar. Second edition, Oxford University
Press

Hughes, A. (2001), The online English grammar

Retired from: http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/relativeclause.html. N.d. Web. 25

November 2017. [Accessed on 17/02/2023]

Retired from: writingcenter.unc.edu/relative-clauses. N.d.Web. 25 November 2017.

[Accessed on 17/02/2023]