Relative Clauses

​Non-Defining relative clauses
(which/that,who,whom,whose,where and when)

They provide additional information about people, things,places etc. They are separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.

For example : Edward Hopper, who was an American painter, lived and died in New York.

​Defining relative clauses (which/that,who,whom…

Identify a person, thing, place, etc. They provide essential information without which the sentence would be meaningless or ambiguous. Commas are never used.

For example : Edward Hopper was a painter who/that painted “Nighthawks”.

​We use prepositional relative clauses when

They can come either before the relative pronoun or at the end of the relative clause. It is more formal to put the preposition before the relative pronoun. In this case, we use whom (NOT that or who) and which (NOT that) for things.

I.e. The painter to whom you are referring was Mark Rothko.

​We use prepositional relative clauses when

With a long relative clause, it is common to put the preposition before the relative pronoun because it makes the clause is easier to understand.

I.e. I read a story in which a sailor survived in a whale’s stomach.

​whatever, whichever, whoever, …

• I’ll do anything that you want me to do = I’ll do whatever you want me to do.

• No matter what you’re doing. Stop it. = Whatever you’re doing, stop it.

​Useful Phrases

We use quantifiers such as none, some, half, many, most, both, all + of + whom/which in relative clauses.

For example:
The potato has many uses, none of which involve hats.
Ninety people have died, half of whom were killed by mosquitoes.