Relative clauses connect two parts of a sentence with a word such as who, which, that, where, etc. They may add meaning, but as the examples further below will show, they are not always necessary. And there are two types: defining clauses, and non-defining clauses. A defining clause tells us which specific person or thing we are talking about. If a defining clause is removed, the meaning of the sentence changes significantly.
Example:
* The woman who visited me in hospital was very kind.(If we take out the defining clause the sentence reads: "The woman was very kind." What woman?)
* The man who stole my wallet has been arrested.
(If we take out the defining clause the sentence reads: "The man has been arrested." What man?)
* The weather that we had in September wasn't very good.
(If we take out the defining clause the sentence reads: "The weather wasn't very good." What weather?)
A non-defining clause gives us more information about the person or thing we are talking about. If it is removed from the sentence we lose some detail, but the overall meaning of the sentence remains the same.
Example:
* The farmer, whose name was Fred, sold us 10 kilos of carrots.
(Without the non-defining clause: "The farmer sold us 10 kilos of carrots.")
* Elephants, which are the largest land animals, love to eat grass.
(Without the non-defining clause: "Elephants love to eat grass.")
* My mother, who is 75, lives in London.
(Without the non-defining clause: "My mother lives in London.")
And now, as always, here are some links to exercises you can do to practice relative clauses:
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