RELATIVES

Defining Relative Clauses

These relative clauses provide/give essential information about the people and things they are referring to .

(Estas oraciones n os dan información esencial sobre la persona o la cosa a la que nos referimos)

The man who was following me was carrying a knife.

(El hombre que/el cual me estaba siguiendo llevaba una pistola ) ( Ese hombre , no otro hombre. La info es importante )

Relative pronouns as subject or object. The relative pronoun may refer to the subject or the object of the
sentence .

(El pronombre de relative puede referirse al sujeto o al objeto de la frase)

*Subject: Who/that (people) // Which/that (things) >> ( que, el cual, la cual, los cuales, las cuales)

-The man who/that is standing near the door is the director. (que/el cual -subject) (El hombre que estaba cerca……

-The ring which /that is on the table belongs to me. (que/el cual -subject ) ,(El anillo que esta encima de la mesa me pertenece).

( The use of “THAT” is more informal)

*Object: Whom/ who/ that / x- no relative (people) // Which/ that/ x- no relative (things)

-That is the man who/that I saw yesterday. ( who” is the object and ”I“ the subject of “see” Ese es el hombre que vi ayer

-That is the man (x) I saw yesterday. ( you omit the pronoun in informal English-object) ( Ese es el hombre que vi ayer)

-The house which/that my cousin bought is huge. ( La casa que mi primo compró es enorme).

.- The house (x) my cousin bought is huge. ( La casa que mi primo compró es enorme).

Possessive.

* Whose (people / things) - (cuyo/a , cuyos/as)

-That is the girl whose father is a policeman . (cuyo) , (Esa es las chica cuyo padre es policía)

- It was a meeting whose purpose I didn´t understand. (cuyo) , (Fue una reunión cuyo propósito no entendí )

Relative adverbs. They refer to a place ,a time or a reason.

*Place .Where. (here “that” is not possible).

-The place where Alice lives is very comfortable. ( en la que/cual, donde ), (El lugar en el que Alice vive es muy confortable).

*Time. When/that

-The day when /that they met everything changed. ( cuando/en el que /que ), (El día en el que se conocieron todo cambió

* Reason. Why. (Here “that” is not possible).

- The storm was the reason why they couldn´t come to the party. (por la que /cual ) , (La tormenta fue la razón por la

cual no pudieron venir a la fiesta).

Relative with prepositions.( por quien , para quien ,con quien, con el cual…etc)

* a) Prep + whom (people )/ / Prep + which (things)

-The man to whom I was talking didn´t pay any attention to me .( con el que/cual) , (El hombre con el que estaba hablando

no me prestaba atención)

-Those are the toys with which he likes to play. (con los que/cuales ) ,( Esos son los juguetes con los que le gusta jugar).

*b) You can also omit the relative.

-The man (x) I was talking to didn´t pay attention to me. (x-con quien, con el cual) , (El hombre con el que estaba hablando

no me prestaba atención).

-These are the toys (x) he likes to play with. (x-con los que ,con los cuales) , ( Esos son los juguetes con los que le gusta jugar).

(*No se pone relativo ningúno(x) y la preposición se deja en el lugar que le corresponde en una frase ordinaria…hablar con
alguien es “ talk to” y jugar con alguien o algo es “play with”.

*Hay que tener cuidado porque algunas preposiciones no se corresponden con el castellano. Por ejemplo, comprar en una
tienda es “buy from”)
Non-defining Relative Clauses

They don´t tell us which person, things, etc the speaker refers to. These clauses give more information about a
thing or a person already identified, so they are written with commas (one or two).

(Estas oraciones dan información a mayores a cerca de una persona o una cosa ya identificada , por ello van entre comas)

Alex´s mother, who is a famous doctor, lives near my house .

(La madre de Alex, que/ la cual es una doctora famosa, vive en Oxford ).La info de la frase de relativo no es esencial, la frase se entiende igual sin ella)

Special features (Rasgos especiales)

*You can´t use the relative pronoun THAT !!

*You can never omit the relative pronoun!!

* They are written with commas!! (one or two, depending on the situation)

Relative pronouns as subject or object

*Subject: Who (people) / Which (things)

-John , who is a very intelligent boy, has studied a lot for the exams .(que, el cual-subject)

- My BMV, which is parked in front of the house, is the best car I have ever had . (que,el cual-subject)

*Object: Whom/ who/ (people) / Which (things)

-Sarah Ross , who/whom you met in Madrid last summer, will be at the party tonight (a quien, a la cual)

- My aunt´s house, which I love so much , will be demolished soon.( Which-object-// I-subject )

Possessive.

*Whose (people / things) - (cuyo/a , cuyos/as)

-Tina Harris, whose brother is the actor Paul Harris , is a good friend of mine. (cuyo)

Relative with prepositions. (por quien , para quien ,con quien, con el cual…etc)

*Prep + whom (people) / Prep + which (things) // Relative_____________Preposition.

-She is studying chemistry, about which I know very little . ( a cerca de la cual.)

-She is studying chemistry, which I know very little about. ( a cerca de la cual.)

Relative adverbs. WHEN ,WHERE . They refer to a place or a time already specified.

-We visited a town called Christchurch, where we had lunch in an Italian restaurant. ( donde, en la cual)

-We are going on holidays in September, when the weather isn´t so hot. (cuando)