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📘 Two children. You mean one of them.

You stand in the library and two children are reading at the same table. One has a red book open. The other has a blue one. You turn to a friend and start a sentence: I mean the child… Then you stop. Which child? The friend cannot see insid

4
lessons
~20 min
to learn
Adults
level
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What you’ll learn

  1. The hitchhiker after the nounRecognise a relative clause as a dependent clause that sits after a noun, begins with a relative pronoun, and cannot stand alone as a sentence.A relative clause is a hitchhiker. It has a subject and a verb, it tags a noun, and it has to sit next to the noun it is about. Two sentences that share a noun can fold into one.
  2. Who, which, and thatChoose who for people, which for things, and that for a person or thing when the clause is picking which one.Year 5’s everyday clips are who, which, and that. Who keeps the noun a person. Which tags a thing. That is the picker, and it is not invited to extra-fact clauses.
  3. When the commas go inUse the lift test to decide whether a relative clause is defining or extra, and punctuate it accordingly, keeping that out of extra-fact clauses.If you can lift the clause out and still know which one, the commas stay and that stays away. If you cannot, there are no commas, because the clause is how you pick.
  4. Whose, where, when, and the missing wordUse whose for belonging, where for place, when for time, and omit the relative pronoun only when it is the object of a defining clause.Whose is belonging. Where is a place. When is a time. If the clip is the object, Year 5 lets you leave it out. Put that back in: if the sentence still works, the silence was legal.

Questions this course answers

In The child who is holding the red book smiled, what is who is holding the red book doing?

Who is holding the red book is a relative clause. It has a subject and a verb, but it cannot stand alone. It tags the noun child and tells you which child.

Choose the starter that fits a person.

Who is the relative pronoun for a person. Which is for things. Where is for places. When is for times.

Match each starter to the job it usually does.

Who tags people, which tags things, that picks a person or a thing, and whose shows belonging.

Put these steps in order for adding a relative clause.

First you need the noun. Then you decide the job. Then you pick the starter. Commas come last, and only if the clause is extra.

The Baily Lighthouse, which stands on the cliff, still guides ships. Why are there commas?

There is only one Baily Lighthouse. The clause adds a fact. Commas mark that you can lift it out and still know which lighthouse.

In your own words, why does Stacy’s truck that is painted red mean something different from Stacy’s truck, which is painted red?

That plus no commas picks which truck. Which plus commas adds a fact about a truck you already know. Purdue’s truck pair is the same words in two different worlds.

Grounded in trusted sources

  • Department for Education, English Appendix 2: Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (Year 5: relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, that, or an omitted relative pronoun; terminology: relative pronoun, relative clause), https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335190/English_Appendix_2_-_Vocabulary_grammar_and_punctuation.pdf
  • Department for Education, National curriculum in England: English programmes of study (years 5 and 6: using relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, that or with an implied relative pronoun), https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study
  • Common Core State Standards Initiative, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.1.a: Use relative pronouns (who, whose, whom, which, that) and relative adverbs (where, when, why), https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/L/4/
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center, Relative Clauses (dependent adjective clause; who/whom/whose/that/which; restrictive vs non-restrictive; that banned from non-restrictive; reducing object pronouns), https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/relative-clauses/
  • Purdue University Online Writing Lab, Introduction and General Usage in Defining Clauses; That vs. Which (antecedent; defining vs non-defining; whose for people and things; omitting object pronouns; truck and sweater meaning-change pairs), https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/grammar/relative_pronouns/index.html
  • Don Bissonnette, ESL Grammar: The Way You Like It, section 4.7 Relative / Adjective Clauses, via LibreTexts (relative clause as dependent adjective clause; who/which/that/whose/where/when; two sentences folded into one), https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Languages/English_as_a_Second_Language/ESL_Grammar_The_Way_You_Like_It_(Bissonnette)/04%3A_Book_4/4.07%3A_Relative__Adjective_Clauses

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