Relatives Clausula

Relatives clausula

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RELATIVES

EXERCISE 202. Elementary

Note: General Remarks:

The apparently haphazard English system of relatives is best approached by teaching them from the beginning

in their two main groups of defining and nondefining relatives. Although the following exercises are

meant for practice in spoken English, the points they deal with are equally applicable to the written language.

By far the greater number of relatives in general use is of the defining type; this kind should therefore be

taught first, though most grammar books deal with the forms of the nondefining relative as the standard,

and include the defining relative rather as an afterthought.

For the sake of clarity, the following forms should be taught and practised in writing and speaking. The

forms in square brackets are acceptable alternatives, but are not recommended for active teaching; teach

contactclauses by omitting “that” whenever possible. The “that's” in round brackets can be omitted;

they usually are in spoken English.

A. Defining Relative.

People Things

Subject who, [that] that, [which]

Object (that) (that)

Preposition (that) preposition (that) preposition

Possessive whose of which [whose]

B. Nondefining Relative.

People Things

Subject ,who …, , which. . .,

Object , whom…, , which. . .,

Preposition ,preposition + whom , , preposition + which . . ., [, which . . . preposition],

[..., who(m)... preposition],

Possessive , whose, , of which,[, whose]

Defining Relative.

Here the relative clause is an essential part of the idea being expressed, in that it defines or limits its antecedent

to one particular selected type.

The man is coming to tea. (Well, what man?)

The man who [that] wrote this poem is coming to tea.

“who wrote this poem” cannot be omitted, since without it we cannot define “the man”.

Most of the relatives of spoken English, probably at least 90 per cent, fall into this category.

It would be convenient to use “that" throughout, but custom prefers “who” in the subject for persons (especially

proper names), and inefficient mechanism gives us “whose” and “of which” for the possessive, since “that” has

no possessive of its own, and cannot suffer a preposition before it.

We can therefore tabulate the following elementary types:

Subject: The man who [that] wrote this poem is coming to tea.

The book that [which] is lying on the table is mine.

Object: The man you met yesterday is coming to tea. (The man that you met yesterday is coming to tea.)

The book I put on the table is mine. (The book that I put on the table is mine.) We prefer the contact

clause without "that."

(For Prepositional and Possessives see next exercise.)

The forms in square brackets are possible alternatives, but the main forms as outlined above should be insisted

on in the exercises.

N.B. Defining relative clauses are NEVER preceded by a comma in writing.

Add the missing relative, but make a contact clause where Possible:

1. The man ... you want has just left.

2. The lady ... was here yesterday has gone to London.

3. The magazine ... you lent me is very interesting.

4. The chair ... was broken is now mended.

5. The old man ... lives next door has just died.

6. Women ... work in hospitals are to be admired.

1. The cigarette ... you are smoking is a Player's.

2. The girl ... lives opposite my house is very pretty.

1. The fish ... I ate yesterday was not good.

2. The street . . . leads to the school is very wide.

3. The flowers ... I cut this morning are still fresh.

4. The dress . . . you are wearing is lovely.

1. The person ... is sitting next to me is not very clever.

1. The man ... cut your hair did it very badly.

1. The letter ... we received today had no stamp on it.

2. The music ... the orchestra is playing is a Strauss waltz.

3. Was the hat . . . you were wearing yesterday very expensive?