Journal of Ethics and Diversity in

International Communication
| e-ISSN: 2792-4017 | www.openaccessjournals.eu | Volume: 3 Issue: 1

What is the Difference between Defining and Non-Defining Relative

Annotation: Defining and non-defining relative clauses they both belong to types of relative
clauses. Before clarifying the difference between defining and non-defining relative clauses, it
would be useful clearly understand what a relative clause is.
So, the relative clauses are used to state extra information about noun in the sentence. It is always
just a combination of words (collocations) or clause, which are included as part of the main
sentence.
e.g. My brother, who graduated from the Samarkand State University last academic year, is
working as a teacher at school now.
The chunk “who graduated from the Samarkand State University” adds some additional
information to above mentioned sentence.
Defining relative clauses give us essential information – information that tells us who or what we
are talking about.
The woman who lives next door works in a bank.
These are the flights that have been cancelled.
We usually use a relative pronoun or adverb to start a defining relative clause: who, which, that,
when, where or whose.

Introduction:
In this article, we will discuss with you how to build more complex sentences, give more
information and connect the two parts with each other by means of relative pronouns. To do this,
we just need to know everything about how to use relative and interrogative pronouns in English.
Relative pronouns (as well as conjunctions) serve to connect the subordinate clause with the main
one.
Followings are relative pronouns in English. These words belong to relative pronouns:
English Russian Uzbek
who кто, кого kim, kimni
whom кого, кому kimning, kimga
what что, какой nima, qanaqa
whose чей kimning
which который qaysi

In general, both types of relative clauses add additional info to the whole sentence, a defining
relative clause clearly adds detail about a specific noun that is defined.

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 Journal of Ethics and Diversity in
International Communication
| e-ISSN: 2792-4017 | www.openaccessjournals.eu | Volume: 3 Issue: 1
Examples: My son who moved to Korea to continue his education this autumn is enjoying classes
there.
The electric car whose price was told too high is turned out worth for that.
The main part:
Relative clauses are used to give additional information about a noun, such as a person, place or
thing. Relative pronouns introduce a relative clause. They include who for
people, that and which for things, when for time, and whose to show possession.
Relative clauses belong to one of two categories: defining relative clauses and non-
defining relative clauses.
1. Defining relative clauses add essential information to a sentence.
The woman who found my wallet handed it in to reception.
The student whose dog has run away, has gone to look for it.
I remember the day when we first met.
These are the earrings that my mother gave me.
These clauses give essential information about the subject of the sentence. They define
the person, time or thing that we are talking about. If we remove the clause, the sentence does not
make sense.
2. Non-defining relative clauses add extra information to a noun or noun phrase.
My friend’s birthday, which was last weekend, was great fun.
My current girlfriend, who I love very much, calls me every night.
This extra information is not essential. If we remove the clause, the sentence still makes sense.
This type of clause is more common in written English.
Defining relative clauses are made with noun + relative pronoun + rest of clause.
A kangaroo is an animal which lives in Australia.
The man who came for lunch was my uncle.
Winter is a time when it sometimes snows.
Non-defining relative clauses are made in the same way. An important difference, however,
between both types of clause is the use of punctuation. With non-defining relative clauses, we
separate the clause with commas. We cannot use that in this type of clause.
My favourite food, which used to be Italian, is now Japanese.
Rachel, who we met yesterday, lives in this neighbourhood.
My car, which I bought seven years ago, needs replacing.
This shirt, which I bought last weekend, cost £50.
My best friend, who I met at university, is coming for dinner.

Published under an exclusive license by open access journals under Volume: 3 Issue: 1 in Jan-2023
Copyright (c) 2023 Author (s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons
Attribution License (CC BY).To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

31
 Journal of Ethics and Diversity in
International Communication
| e-ISSN: 2792-4017 | www.openaccessjournals.eu | Volume: 3 Issue: 1
1) Take note: replacing the relative pronoun
In informal communication, relative pronouns, such as who and when, are commonly replaced
with that in defining relative clauses.
The woman that called last night was very polite.
Do you remember the time that you first met?
2) Take note: leaving out the relative pronoun
When using defining relative clauses in informal speech and writing, the relative pronoun can
be left out completely if it refers to the object of the relative clause.
This is the shirt that I bought.
This is the shirt I bought.
The girl who I like isn’t here yet.
The girl I like isn’t here yet.
In non-defining relative clauses, the relative pronoun cannot be left out.
3) Take note: spoken English
The relative pronoun who is used when referring to people. However, in formal written and spoken
English, if the pronoun refers to the object of the clause, we use whom instead.
My German teacher, whom I really admired, retired last year.
The woman whom I called this morning was my secretary.
Conclusion:
Non-defining clauses also use relative pronouns, just as defining clauses do. The only difference is
that you cannot use “that” with a non-defining clause, unlike defining clauses.
So apart from that, what else makes them different? It’s easy to spot a non-defining clause in
writing, as you’ll see that the clause is separated by commas at the start and end of it!
You can see an additional clause in the middle of the sentence following the words “who” or
“whose” in both examples, which contain additional information. They relate to a specific noun that
has been pointed out specially identified: “My son” or “The electric car”.
Used literature:
1. Azizov A. Sopostavitel'naya grammatika russkogo i uzbekskogo yazykov. Morfologiya
[Comparative grammar of Russian and Uzbek languages. Morphology]. Tashkent: Uchpedgiz,
1960.
2. J.Buronov, English Grammar, “O’qituvchi”, Tashkent, 1992
3. Fitz, H., Chang, F., & Christiansen, M. H. (2011). A connectionist account of the acquisition
and processing of relative clauses. In E. Kidd (Ed.). The acquisition of relative clauses:
Processing, typology and function (pp. 39-60).
Amsterdam/Pheladelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
4. Cowan, R. (2008). The teacher’s grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Internet resources:
https://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/defining-relative-clauses
Published under an exclusive license by open access journals under Volume: 3 Issue: 1 in Jan-2023
Copyright (c) 2023 Author (s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons
Attribution License (CC BY).To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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