V4 - Unit 5, lesson 3

Lesson 3:
Relative clauses!
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This lesson contains 16 slides, with interactive quizzes, text slides and 1 video.

time-iconLesson duration is: 45 min

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Lesson 3:
Relative clauses!
Work on week task 

Slide 1 - Slide

Grammar: relative clauses
Defining relative clause:
 - She showed me photos of the gorillas that she had studied
- The man who had hit me with his car appologized immediately.

Non-defining relative clause:
- Jack the Ripper, whose identity was never uncovered, is an infamous killer.
- Her most recent book, which was published last month, is the last part in the Seven Sisters series.

Slide 2 - Slide

What is a relative clause?
We can use relative clauses to join two English sentences together, or to give more information about something. We make a relative clause by starting it with a relative pronoun. These are: who, which, that, whose, whom, where, when, why


I bought a new car. It is very fast. → I bought a new car that is very fast.

She lives in New York. She likes living in New York.  →  She lives in New York, which she likes.

Slide 3 - Slide

Relative pronouns
which: refer to things
that: refer to things only in defining relative clauses (can be a replacement for which)
who: refers to people

whom: refers to people if they are the object (lijd vw/meew vw) of the clause: Professor West, whom I worked with recently, has won the Nobel Prize
whose: used with things/people to express possession (like 's does)
when: refers to time
where: refers to place

Slide 4 - Slide

What is a defining relative clause?

Slide 5 - Open question

Defining relative clause
These clauses give essential information so that we can identify who or what is being talked about. The relative clause follows immediately after the noun referring to the person or thing we are talking about.

  • We do not put commas at the beginning and end of a defining relative clause.
  • We can interchange which and that for each other.
  • Sometimes we can omit the relative pronoun. This often happens when the relative pronoun is not the subject of the sentence:
    She showed me photos of the gorillias (which/that) she had studied.
    She showed me photos of the gorillas which/that lived nearby. (subject beloning to 'lived')

Slide 6 - Slide

What is a non-defining relative clause?

Slide 7 - Open question

Non-defining relative clause
These clauses give non-essential, extra information about something or someone.
  • We have to use a comma before and after the relative clause:
    London, which has always been located on the river Thames, is my favourite city to go shoppping.
  • We cannot omit the relative pronoun:
    My sister, who I live with, knows a lot about cars. = correct
    My sister, i live with, knows a lot about cars. = incorrect

Slide 8 - Slide

So what is the main difference between the two?

Slide 9 - Open question

The difference
A defining relative clause tells which noun we are talking about:

I like the woman who lives next door.
(If I don't say 'who lives next door', then we don't know which woman I mean).

A non-defining relative clause gives us extra information about something. We don't need this information to understand the sentence.


I live in London, which has some fantastic parks.
(Everybody knows where London is, so 'which has some fantastic parks' is extra information).

Slide 10 - Slide

Prepositions in relative clauses

Slide 11 - Slide

Slide 12 - Slide

Slide 13 - Slide

Slide 14 - Video

Unit 5: round it up!
  1. Now do the exercises on relative clauses in Unit 5: 1-5 + corpus spot
  2. For listening Unit 5, use the sound fragment here:
  3. Do exercises 1-3 of Listening
  4. Once again, check yourself! Ask any
     questions you still have about Unit 5
    and the exercises. 
Listening Unit 5

Slide 16 - Slide