Relative clauses and pronouns

​​In a nutshell

Relative clauses are types of subordinate clauses. They give extra information about a noun/noun phrase and are often separated by commas.

Relative clauses

Relative clauses come straight after the noun they are giving more information about a noun/noun phrase in a sentence. This is likely to be in the middle of the sentence and might be separated by commas, as in the following example.

Example

The fox,	who lost his shoes,	went parachuting.
	↑ this is the relative clause,  separated by commas.

Relative pronouns

Relative pronouns are the words that introduce a relative clause. The relative pronoun "who" is highlighted in bold above. Below is a full list of relative pronouns. The one you'll pick will depend on the type of person/object you're describing.

Examples

The dog	that ate the cake	is on the bus.
The school	where Rachael goes	is far away.

Remember that relative clauses might not always be embedded in the middle. They can simply be tagged on the end (separated by a comma):

The fox went skydiving,	which is a dangerous activity!

​​​​