Relative Clauses

Stage 2 : Exercise

Relative Clauses

English uses relative clauses (beginning with who, which, that) to refer to important nouns in sentences. Relative clauses postmodify (come after) the nouns they describe. This is the way English provides lengthy descriptions, since premodification (words placed before the element they describe) is very limited. Chinese, however, is a language which allows much greater premodification of nouns. Compare how the noun people is described in the sentences below :

(Live in America city people often very poor.)

People who live in American cities are often very poor.

Relative pronouns also help to bind elements of English together and to retain the basic Subject-Verb-Object word order of the language. The complex functions of relatives may make this a difficult area of grammar for students whose native language does not make use of the concept.

Added to these problems is the fact that the relative pronoun in a clause may "disappear".

For example:

One of the visiting company heads expected last week did not arrive.

(who was expected …).

And

The experiments she is currently working on are some of the most important in the University. (that she is …).

Click for the exercises.
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3