English relative clauses

Audio: 4 min. 04 sec.

Whether you have been studying English for only a few weeks or for years, you have probably had that experiences in which you do not know one word within a sentence and it completely shuts down your self-confidence.

“Last week, I went to…um…I went to…ah, I can’t remember what it’s called!”

In this blog I will teach you about the relative clause, an incredibly useful language tool that you can use to avoid the above situation and communicate ideas even when you do not know a specific word that you are looking for.

What is a relative clause?

The relative clause is a grammar structure that you can use to give more information about a specific thing, person, or place. An example of a relative clause is the following sentence:

“Michael is the person who teaches me English.”

The relative clause gives us more information about Michael, telling us what his job is, in this case. We connect our more detailed information using a type of word called a Relative Pronoun.

The main relative pronouns are Which, which describes a general thing, Who, which describes a person, Where, which describes a location, and When, which describes a specific time.

There’s also That, a more casual pronoun that can be used to describe both people and things.

To make a relative clause, we introduce a noun and link it with the correct relative pronoun followed by a verb.

Any noun can be extended with a relative clause, whether it is the subject or object of a sentence.

Here is another example, just to make it clear:

“The food which you made for dinner was delicious!”

How is this useful?

How does this help me, you might be wondering?

Well, we can use this structure to give information about a word, even if we do not know the actual word we want to use.

For example, “I went to…um, the person who you take your car to if it is damaged.”

The actual word needed here is Mechanic, but by using a relative clause we can still communicate the main idea of the sentence even though we do not remember the key word.

Even native speakers forget vocabulary sometimes; the important skill here is to try and reduce how much impact this has when you are talking to someone.

Using relative clauses can help you avoid that awkward silence that appears when you realise you are not sure about a word.

More than that, though, is the main reason I recommend people studying English learn how to effectively use relative clauses: it is a fantastic way to ask questions about vocabulary!

Even if you feel like you can only express basic ideas, doing so in the structure of a relative clause can help you get information from speaking or writing partners.

Most nouns can be simplified into basic ideas for this purpose, even if the actual noun is quite advanced.

“What do you call the person who takes blood from you for the doctor”? 

“That’s a phlebotomist.”

If you are trying to explain something from your language that does not have an English equivalent, the relative clause can also be used here to explain yourself, allowing for clearer language exchange with your partner.

Hopefully you can see how useful this piece of grammar is and can start to integrate it into your tactics for language development.

Once you master this, you will find that it is an essential tool as you work your way through more and more difficult vocabulary.

Until then, I hope you find this helpful and I wish you good luck!