RELATIVE CLAUSES

Defining relative clauses In the sentence: The woman who lives in that house is French. (La mujer que vive en aquella casa es francesa.)The basic sentence is: The woman is French. (La mujer es francesa.)And in order to specify the woman, we include the relative clause "who lives in that house". Who is the relative word; it refers to a person ("the woman") and it is the subject of the verb "lives". In the sentence: I liked the film that we saw last week. (Me gustó la película que vimos la semana pasada.)The basic sentence is: I liked the film. (Me gustó la película.)And in order to specify the film, we include the relative clause "that we saw last week". That is the relative word; it refers to a thing ("the film") and it is the object of the verb "saw". There are different relative words for different situations:   Subject of the verb Object of the verb or preposition Possessive Refers to a person 1 who 2 who, that, whom, Ø 1 5 whose Refers to a thing 3 that, which 4 that, which, Ø 1   1 Ø means that no relative word is one possibility.Examples of 1 (relative clause in blue; relative word in bold): The girls who came enjoyed the show. (Las chicas que vinieron disfrutaron del espectáculo.)Do you know the boywho's playing the drums? (¿Conoces al chico que toca la batería?) Example Spanish The children who I saw were from Scotland. Los niños que vi eran de Escocia. The children that I saw were from Scotland. The children whom I saw were from Scotland. The children I saw were from Scotland. Example Spanish The man who I spoke to was very helpful. El hombre con quien hablé era muy servicial. The man that I spoke to was very helpful. The manI spoke to was very helpful. Whom is formal; when it is the object of a preposition, we prefer to place the preposition with whom, for example: The man to whom I spoke was very helpful. (El hombre con quien hablé era muy servicial.) Example Spanish The building that collapsed was very old. El edificio que se desplomó era muy viejo. The building which collapsed was very old. Example Spanish I like the pictures that she paints. Me gustan los cuadros que pinta. I like the pictures which she paints. I like the picturesshe paints. I found the ring that I was looking for. Encontré el anillo que buscaba. I found the ring which I was looking for. I found the ringI was looking for. I spoke to the woman whose daughter won first prize. (Hablé con la mujer cuya hija ganó el primer premio.) The young man whose picture was in the papers came into the shop. (El joven que aparecía fotografiado en los periódicos entró en la tienda.)When the relative refers to a day or other period of time, you will sometimes see the relative word when, e.g.: Example Spanish The day when they came was very cold. El día que vinieron hacía mucho frío. The day that they came was very cold. The daythey came was very cold. Where is also a relative word; it corresponds to a preposition phrase, not a noun phrase. Consider, for example, these sentences: Example Spanish This is the house that Shakespeare lived in. Ésta es la casa donde vivía Shakespeare. This is the house where Shakespeare lived. In the first sentence, that refers to "the house", so we need the preposition in, but in the second sentence, where refers to "in that house", so there is no preposition. Consequently, the following two sentences are wrong: . . As distinct from Spanish, English does not have a subjunctive verb form in relative clauses like the following, e.g.: We need someone who speaks Chinese. (Necesitamos a alguien que hable chino.)I'm looking for a hat that matches this dress. (Busco un sombrero a juego con este vestido.)See also non-defining relative clauses and sentence relative clause.Examples of 2 (relative clause inblue; relative word inbold):Examples of 3 (relative clause inblue; relative word inbold):Examples of 4 (relative clause inblue; relative word inbold):Examples of 5 (relative clause inblue; relative word inbold):

Non-defining relative clauses In the sentence: Einstein, who was born in Switzerland, lived for many years in the United States. (Einstein, que nació en Suiza, vivió muchos años en Estados Unidos.)The basic sentence is: Einstein lived for many years in the United States. (Einstein vivió muchos años en Estados Unidos.)"Who was born in Switzerland" gives us more information about Einstein, but it does not specify which Einstein we are talking about. Similarly, in the sentence: London, which lies on the River Thames, is an important port. (Londres, que se encuentra sobre el río Támesis, es un puerto importante.)The basic sentence is: London is an important port. (Londres es un puerto importante.)"Which lies on the River Thames" gives more information about London, but it does not specify which London we are talking about. The information in these relative clauses is extra and not essential; these clauses are therefore separated from the main sentence by commas. There are different relative words for different situations:   Subject of the verb Object of the verb or preposition Possessive Refers to a person 1 who 2 who, whom 5 whose Refers to a thing 3 which 4 which   Examples of 1 (relative clause in blue; relative word in bold): Nicole Kidman, who was born in Hawaii, has dual nationality. (Nicole Kidman, que nació en Hawai, tiene doble nacionalidad.)The King invited Charles Darwin, who had just returned from the Galapagos Islands. (El rey invitó a Charles Darwin, que acababa de regresar de las islas Galápagos.) Nicole Kidman, who(m) everyone recognised, arrived in a Rolls Royce. (Nicole Kidman, a quien todo el mundo reconoció, llegó en Rolls-Royce.)The Times had an article about Charles Darwin, who(m) the King had recently invited to the Palace. (El Times tenía un artículo sobre Charles Darwin, a quien el rey había recibido recientemente en el palacio.) Titanic, which won 9 Oscars, made enormous profits. (Titanic, que ganó 9 Oscars, generó enormes beneficios.)We stayed in the Ritz Hotel, which is in the middle of the town. (Vivieron en el Hotel Ritz, que se encuentra en el centro del pueblo.) Corsica, which we visited last year, is very mountainous. (Córcega, que visitamos el año pasado, es muy montañosa.)My grandmother left me her house, which I later sold. (Mi abuela me dejó su casa, y más tarde la vendí.) Elton John, whose real name is Reginald Dwight, was born in London. (Elton John, cuyo auténtico nombre es Reginald Dwight, nació en Londres.)The programme was about The Beatles, whose songs used to be very popular. (El programa era sobre los Beatles, cuyas canciones eran muy populares antes.)If a non-defining relative clause has a preposition, it goes with the relative whom or which, e.g.: Buñuel, with whom Dalí had made a film, later became a great director. (Buñuel, con quien Dalí había realizado una película, se convirtió en un gran director.)I read Augustine's Confessions, in which he discusses his early life. (Leí Las confesiones de Augusto, en la que habla de su vida como joven.)There are also non-defining relative clauses with where, e.g.: We visited Highgate Cemetery, where we saw Marx's grave. (Visitamos el cementerio de Highgate, donde vimos la tumba de Marx.)See also defining relative clauses and sentence relative clause.Examples of 2 (relative clause in blue; relative word in bold):Examples of 3 (relative clause in blue; relative word in bold):Examples of 4 (relative clause in blue; relative word in bold):Examples of 5 (relative clause in blue; relative word in bold):

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