B1 Intermediate Relative clauses
Defining relative clauses
Lesson goal. After this lesson you can join two sentences with who, which, that, whose and know when the pronoun can be dropped.
When to use it
- Identifying which person or thing you mean: The man who lives next door.
- Avoiding repetition: I have a friend. He speaks Japanese. → I have a friend who speaks Japanese.
- Writing longer, better-connected sentences.
Form
| Pronoun | Replaces | Example |
|---|---|---|
| who | person | The girl who won the prize |
| which | things, animals | The book which I bought |
| that | people or things | The film that we watched |
| whose | possession (his, her, their) | The boy whose father is a doctor |
Step by step
- Find the noun repeated in the second sentence.
- Replace it with the right relative pronoun: person → who, thing → which.
- Put the relative clause right after the noun it describes.
- Delete the old pronoun (he, it, him) completely.
When you can drop the pronoun
| Sentence | Role | Can you drop it? |
|---|---|---|
| The book (which) I bought | object of bought | Can be left out |
| The man who lives here | subject of lives | Cannot be left out |
| The film (that) we watched | object of watched | Can be left out |
| The girl who called me | subject of called | Cannot be left out |
Examples
The man who lives next door is a doctor.
This is the book which I told you about.
I don't like films that have sad endings.
That's the student whose bag was stolen.
The photo you took is beautiful.
The teacher who teaches us English is very kind.
Common mistakes
The book which I read it was great. → The book which I read was great.
which already stands for the object, so it must go. Vietnamese allows the extra pronoun, so learners keep it.
The woman which lives here is a nurse. → The woman who lives here is a nurse.
People take who or that.
The man who he lives next door is a doctor. → The man who lives next door is a doctor.
who is already the subject of the clause; he is redundant.
Memory tip
After joining, read the relative clause on its own. If you see two subjects (who … he) or two objects (which … it), one of them is redundant.
Summary
- who people · which things · that both · whose possession.
- The relative pronoun replaces the old pronoun; they never co-occur.
- As an object it can be dropped; as a subject it cannot.
Practise this lesson
Do exercises with an explanation for every question, take mini tests and track your progress on GrammUp.