Inhaltsverzeichnis
Relative Clauses
Introduction
Look at the example sentences. Do you notice any differences between a and b?
- Example
- There was a bird which flew past my window.
- The bird, which was about 2 metres long, scared me a lot.
- Example
- At the bus stop there was a man who was singing loudly.
- This man, who also didn’t wear any trousers, annoyed many of the people there.
Defining and non-defining relative clauses
A defining relative clause adds necessary information to the main clause. Without it, the main clause would be incomplete. There are no commas.
A non-defining relative clause adds extra (zusätzlich) information to the main clause. It is not necessary and the main clause is complete without it. There are commas between the main clause and the relative clause.
Practice
- John Muir was one of the people who fought against the dam project.
- John Muir, who was born in Scotland, fought to make Yosemite a national park.
- One out of 25 people who live in the USA are there illegally.
- Mexicans, who usually do unskilled work, make up a large part of the illegal immigrants.
- Some people want to get tough on illegal immigrants, who they think should be arrested.
- Most immigrants who want to cross the border manage to do it.
Contact clauses
There’s a special type of relative clause that is used very often especially in spoken English. Compare the following sentences:
- Example
- This is the city (that) I love.
- This is the city that is 500 years old
- Example
- The new power station (which) I’m working at is in the mountains.
- This is the new power station which works with water.
- Example
- The music (that) they had was great, too.
- The music that went on for hours.
In the a-example sentences, the relative clause has its own subject. In this case, the relative pronoun (who, which, that) can be omitted [weglassen].
So the a-examples could also read:
- This is the city I love.
- The new power station I’m working at is in the mountains.
- The music they had was great, too.
Here are some more examples
- This is a picture of the place (which) I now call home.
- I look forward to the long holidays (that) we also get.
- It’s the type of big job (that) I like.
- It’s lovely here with … friendly people (who) I’ve really learned to love.
This type of defining relative clause is called a contact clause.
Contact clauses in contrast to regular [normal] relative clauses
object1) | subject2) | ||||
contact clause | The castle | (which) | you | can visit | is on the hill |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
normal relative clause | The castle | which | stands | on the hill is nice. | |
contact clause | The city | (that) | I | love | is Edinburgh. |
normal relative clause | The city | that | is | 500 years old has many houses. | |
contact clause | The power station | (which) | I | am working on | will be finished soon. |
normal relative clause | The power station | which | works | with water is very new. |
Rule for the use of the contact clause
If the relative clause has its own subject, we can leave out the relative pronoun (who, which, that).
You can also say this in a different way:
When the relative pronoun is the object of the relative clause, you can leave it out.)
Videos
Exercises
- Relative Clauses (Relativsätze) – Explanation and exercises
- Relative clauses – Explanation and exercises