Relative Clauses

What Relative Clauses means

Welcome back to the course. In this video we're talking about relative clauses. There are basically two types of relative clauses. The first type is the defining relative clause and the second type is the non defining relative clause.

So let's look at what each of these are were starting with the defining relative clause basically a defining relative clause is a clause which is necessary in a sentence without this clause. The noun remains incomplete. So basically the idea of the sentence remains incomplete. In other words this type of relative clause defines the noun.

How to use it

The last thing that you need to know about the defining relative clause is that we don't use a comma before the relative pronoun so let's look at an example. To better understand all of this here's our example. Belgium is the country that sold the most coffee. Now the word that in this sentence is the relative pronoun and you'll notice that the word that defines the noun that comes before it in this case it's defining the country.

In other words we're clarifying which country Belgium is. It is the country that sold the most coffee if you were to just stop the sentence right here this sentence wouldn't really make any sense because then you would just be left with. Belgium is the country and that is an incomplete sentence Belgium is which country. What type of country we need to clarify this noun to show the reader what exactly we're talking about so that is what we mean by a defining relative clause.

On the other hand we have the non defining relative clause or non defining relative clause is not necessary in a sentence. Because the idea is still complete without it. So we don't really need the non defining relative clause. Well if we don't really need it then why do we use it we use it when we want to give extra information about the noun in a sentence sometimes we want to extend the amount of information that we're providing about the noun in this case we use the non defining relative clause.

The last thing to note about this clause is that with this clause we do use a comma before the relative pronoun so let's look at an example of this Belgium earned one point seven million euros from coffee sales which made it the most profitable country so you'll notice that if we wanted we could have just topped the sentence right here. Well we could have just said Belgium earned one point seven million euros from coffee sales. We don't have to continue the sentence. We could just stop right here.

However we decided that we want to add some extra information keep in mind this extra information is not necessary. We just want to provide this extra information. Anyway so in this case we've added the extra information with this relative pronoun here which that's our relative pronoun. And we've added this non defining relative clause the clauses which made it the most profitable country so we call this a non defining relative clause because this type of clause does not define the noun whereas in the defining relative clause this clause that we've added here defines the noun that we're talking about so that's the difference between the defining relative clause and the non defining relative clause.

Now all relative clauses use some kind of a relative pronoun. So in this example we've used the relative pronoun that in this example we've used the relative pronoun wage and there are several other relative pronouns that we use with both the defining and the non defining relative clauses. So let's explore what some of these relative pronouns are. We're going to start off with the relative pronoun who so we use this relative pronoun whenever we refer to people.

Practice focus

So here's our example sentence. Sam's mother who lives in Scotland has six grandchildren so notice that we used a relative pronoun who to talk about Sam's mother. Sam's mother is a person so therefore we use the relative pronoun who on the other hand if you want to talk about things in general then you can either use which or that in this example we're using the relative pronoun which to refer to overgrazing so our sentences overgrazing represented the primary cause of global land depletion which accounted for approximately 30 percent of land degradation next. If you want to refer to places then you can use the relative pronoun where for example you could say the only country where the population declined was Australia notice that we're using the relative pronoun where to talk about country.

In this case that country is Australia and Australia is a place if you want to refer to a specific period of time then you can use the relative pronoun when so you could say the period when mobile phones plummeted in demand was the month of December notice that we're using the relative pronoun when to talk about the period that period is the month of December. So we're talking about a certain period of time if you want to refer to possession then you can use the relative pronoun whose for example you could say the only country whose sales declined was Yemen so in this case were using the relative pronoun. Who's to talk about the countries sales in this case we're talking about Yemen sales OK so we're showing possession whose sales whose sales are we talking about. We're talking about Yemen's sales I also want to point out that most of the times when we use this relative pronoun whose we usually use it to show the possession by a person.

However you could also use this relative pronoun to show the possession by a country or other nouns here's our final example. If you want to refer to a certain reason then you can use the relative pronoun. The reason why they migrated to the nearby islands is not clear so in this case Y is referring back to this reason here. It is clarifying which reason we're talking about so those are all the relative pronouns.

And this is how we use them to refer to different things. Now let's talk about the use of commas in the relative clauses so the first thing that I want you to notice is that whenever we have a non defining relative clause we have to use a comma. So we've used a comma here here and here. Do you remember what the non defining relative clauses the non defining relative clause is when we're just giving extra information.