1. Relative Clauses

2. Relative Clauses: An Intro • A relative clause is a subordinate clause that adds more information to a noun phrase. • A famous one: He who must not be named. • “who must not be named” is the relative clause • Relative pronouns can modify a pronoun, noun, or noun phrase

3. Relative Clauses • That cat just clawed my face. Do you know who owns that cat? • Do you know who owns the cat that just clawed my face? • Relative clauses help condense sentences. • Relative clauses are usually created by using relative pronouns to connect the two ideas.

5. Subject and Object Pronouns • They use the same pronouns but in different ways. • A subject pronoun will be followed by a verb • (example here) • An object pronoun will be followed by a noun or pronoun. • (example) • Object pronouns can be dropped in restrictive relative clauses (example)

6. Relative Adverbs • Relative adverbs • In cases where a relative pronoun + preposition would be used, a single relative adverb can be used instead.

8. Restrictive vs. Non-Restrictive Relative Clauses. • Restrictive • Also known as Defining/Identifying • Not put in commas • Gives information that defines or identifies the noun phrase • Imagine you’re in a room with 5 different ice cream machines, each with a distinct color but unknown flavor. You might say to your friend: I’m going to eat the ice cream that looks like unicorn poop. • If you just said, “I’m going to eat the ice cream” your friend would not know which flavor you were going to eat.

9. Restrictive vs. Non-Restrictive Relative Clauses. • Restrictive Clauses con’t: • In restrictive relative clauses, the object pronoun can sometimes be dropped. In the following sentence, the object pronoun “who” is optional: • The evil witch (who/whom) we defeated yesterday liked to turn people into newts.

10. Restrictive vs. Non-Restrictive Relative Clauses. • Non-Restrictive • Also known as non-defining/non-identifying • Set off by commas • They give extra information that is not necessary to the sentence. • We can flip our previous sentence around: • The evil witch, who liked to turn people into newts, was defeated yesterday. • Here, the relative clause is set off by commas and only provides extra information to the noun phrase. • Note that you cannot drop an object pronoun in a non-restrictive relative clause. (EXAMPLE)

11. Shortening Relative Clauses • Zero Relative Clauses • As we already discussed, in some cases the relative pronoun may be omitted. • Another method is omitting the relative pronoun when using the –ed or –ing form of a verb. • The train arriving at Platform 9 and ¾ is unknown to muggles. • This is a shortened version of, “The train which is arriving at Platform 9 and ¾ is unknown to muggles. • –ed version: • Rabbits (that were) trained to kill were let loose on the invading army.