Sentence structure RELATIVE CLAUSES
Relative clauses with who and that
• Look at this sentence:
The man gave me some money.
If we want to describe the man, we can use an adjective [old, thin, young, etc): The old man gave me some money.
• However, sometimes the information we want to give is more complicated.
The old man met me at the airport. He gave me some money.
The two sentences can be combined, to show which old man gave me the money:
The old man who met me at the airport gave me the money.
who met me at the airport is a clause (a mini-sentence in the larger sentence). It is a called a relative clause because it relates to ( = connects with) a noun in the larger sentence.
FORM
• Relative clauses are often indicated by who (for people) and that (for things and sometimes for people). The relative clause is placed immediately after the noun which it describes.
I was talking to a person who worked with my father.
That's the car that crashed into our house. • who or that replaces the pronoun:
I was talking to a person who worked with my father.
This is the man who I met in Paris.
(NOT This is the man who / mot him in Paris)
Practice
88 Join each pair of sentences together to make one sentence, using who or that. Write the second sentence as a relative clause.
1 This is the woman. She gave me my first job.
This is the woman who Qave me my first job.
2 He picked up the book. It was on the desk. He picked up the book that was on the desk.
3 The meal was delicious. Ben cooked it.
The meal that Ben oooked was deiicious.
4 She's the woman. She telephoned the police.
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He's the person. He wanted to buy your house.
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We threw out the computer. It never worked properly.
This is the lion. It's been ill recently.
The man was badly injured. He was driving the car.
The children broke my window. They live in the next street.
10 They sold the cat. It was afraid of mice.
11 This is the chair. My parents gave it to me.
12 I've applied for the job. You told me about it.
13 We're looking for the ball. We were playing with it.
14 The man was holding the gun. We saw him.
15 I'm going to speak to the mechanic. He repaired my car.
16 The TV programme was very sad. I watched it last night.
17 The girl had red hair. I saw her.
18 That's the woman. I was telling you about her.