Relative clauses: who, which, whose or that?

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When we start learning a language, it is normal to use sentences that are as simple as possible: subject, verb, predicate. But as your English progresses, you need to introduce relative clauses or sentences with relative pronouns such as who , which , whose or that .




Free ebook: relative clauses: who, which, whose or that



By using relative pronouns like who , which , whose or that you can uae phone number list complex ideas effectively and start sounding like a native. But don't worry: once you get the hang of them, they're much easier than they seem.

Below, we tell you everything you need to know about relative clauses.



How relative clauses work
To begin to understand these pronouns , we first need to review relative clauses in English .

Relative clauses are those that serve as subordinate clauses to a main clause, adding more information about a thing or person that has already been mentioned before.

For example:

The cushions that are on the couch are purple and green .

In this case, the main clause would be “The cushions are purple and green” and the secondary clause would be “The cushions are on the couch”. To join both clauses we use the relative pronoun that, which refers to cushions.

There are two main types of relative clauses:
Defining relative clause : This type of sentence gives the information needed to understand what we are referring to and does not use commas.