What did yours claim?
Read out your six sentences with the punctuation as you wrote it. Your partner says what each one claims about the world — how many brothers, how many schemes, all of the students or some.
Mark every one where their reading was not what you meant.
Six sentences with the relative clause removed. Match each to whether the remainder still works.
Two things a defining clause lets you leave out
Read these aloud. All eight are correct.
With the pronoun: The book that I read was hers. · The person who I spoke to was helpful. · The advice that she gave me still works.
Without it: The book I read was hers. · The person I spoke to was helpful. · The advice she gave me still works.
And these, where it cannot go: The man who lives next door is a nurse. · The scheme that solves nothing cost four million.
Four questions about when the pronoun can go.
1. What comes immediately after the pronoun in the sentences where it can be dropped?
2. What comes after it in the two where it cannot?
3. So what is the test?
4. Can you drop the pronoun in a non-defining clause?
The whole system
The pronouns
| Pronoun | For | Defining | Non-defining |
|---|---|---|---|
who | People | Yes | Yes |
which | Things, and whole clauses | Yes | Yes |
that | People and things | Yes | Never |
whose | Possession — people and things | Yes | Yes |
where | Places | Yes | Yes |
when | Times | Yes | Yes |
what | Not a relative pronoun. Never after a noun | — | — |
Three tests, in order.
1. Removal. Take the clause out. Does the sentence still tell you which one? Yes → non-defining, two commas. No → defining, no commas.
2. Omission. Only in a defining clause. Look at the word after the pronoun: a new subject means the pronoun is the object and can go; a verb means it is the subject and must stay.
3. that. If there are commas, that is banned. That is the whole rule.
Zero to three words per gap. Write - if the pronoun can be dropped and you want to drop it.
The colleague sits opposite me has worked here for nineteen years. The one I actually talk to started in March. My manager started the same week I did, has never mentioned it. The room we have the Monday meeting has no windows. And the person name is on the door retired in 2004.
Two more things a relative clause does.
Prepositions. The person I spoke to — the preposition stays at the end and this is normal English. The person to whom I spoke is correct and formal, and you should recognise it rather than produce it.
, which for a whole clause. She arrived two hours late, which surprised nobody. Which refers to the whole of the arriving, not to a noun. This only ever happens with commas.
Eight sentences. Fix each, and say which of the three tests catches it.
1. Fernanda, that taught me for a year, left in 2011.
2. The man lives next door is a nurse.
3. The book what I read was hers.
4. My mother who is a nurse worked nights for years. — one mother
5. The report, that took eighteen months, is finished.
6. She arrived two hours late, what surprised nobody.
7. The colleague who her desk is next to mine is leaving.
8. The advice she gave me still works.
Folding, at speed
Seven parts of one sentence. Put them in order to build a noun phrase with two clauses in it.
- in any of the streets
- was designed by a committee
- it covers.
- The consultation
- do not live
- that closed on the day the schools went back
- whose members
Zero to three words per gap. Pronouns, commas, and one dropped pronoun.
The scheme was approved in March, covers four streets. The councillor proposed it lives in none of them. The residents it affects were consulted for six weeks over the summer is either careless or convenient. The only meeting anybody could attend was held at two on a Tuesday.
Two sentences into one
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 3 minutes each
Your partner reads out two short sentences. You join them into one, within three seconds.
Twenty joins in three minutes. Speed is the point.
- Partner: I met a woman. She used to teach here. · The report is finished. It took a year.
- You: join them, and say whether the clause is defining or non-defining before you start.
- Every fifth pair, your partner names a proper noun — which forces the non-defining version.
- Then swap. Count how many of twenty each of you got.
Say the commas. If the join is non-defining, your voice has to drop and break twice. Your partner is listening for that as much as for the words.
From the joins
Four sentences from the drill. Fix each.
1. I met a woman, that used to teach here.
2. The report, took a year, is finished.
3. Marta, who I work with her, is leaving.
4. The street where I grew up in has changed.
Three tests, in order
Three questions.
1. What is the first test?
2. The person ___ I spoke to was helpful. Can the pronoun go?
3. When is that banned?
Before next lesson. Find one sentence in anything you read this week with at least four words between the article and its noun — the new council parking scheme, that shape.
Copy it out. Next lesson we take those apart and build them, because that stack is the other half of describing something precisely.