Cómo usar cláusulas relativas en inglés

Learning relative clauses in English lets you add extra information to your sentences and turn short, simple statements into longer, richer ones. This lesson is for intermediate ESL learners who want to sound more natural and combine ideas smoothly, just like Thomas did in the role play.

Remember his line? "They just confirmed that the employees who have been at the company for more than two years can apply to this new open managerial position, which I'm very interested in." That single sentence packs in extra details using relative clauses, and by the end of this lesson you will be able to build sentences like it too.

What are relative clauses used for in English?

Relative clauses have two main jobs, and both make your speech more connected and detailed [00:53].

• To join two different sentences into one. If you have "I bought a car" and "The car drives itself," you can merge them with that: "I bought a car that drives itself."
• To add or give extra information about a noun. For example, "My boss, who lives in Seattle, is very nice."

This second use, adding extra information, is the main focus of the class.

What is a relative clause? It is a group of words that adds information about a noun in a sentence. It usually starts with a relative pronoun like who, which, or whose, as in "My boss, who lives in Seattle, is very nice."

Which relative pronouns should you use?

Most relative clauses work with relative pronouns, and choosing the right one depends on who or what you are talking about [01:36].

• Who: refers to the subject when it is a person. The subject is the noun doing the action, like Cesar in "Cesar plays soccer."
• Which: refers to the subject too, but for things, not people.
• Whom: refers to the object, the person or thing receiving the action.
• Where: refers to a place.
• Whose: shows possession.

Understanding the difference between subject and object is key here. The subject does the action; the object receives it.

How do embedded defining clauses work?

The first type of clause to learn is the embedded defining clause, which identifies exactly which noun you mean [03:15].

It has three clear characteristics:

1. It usually begins with a relative pronoun.
2. It goes in the middle of the sentence.
3. It defines or identifies the noun.

Look at "The man who was looking for you has just gone." The clause starts with who, sits in the middle, and tells us exactly which man we are talking about.

Why is a defining clause important? Because if you remove it, the sentence stops making sense. Say "The man has just gone" and the listener asks, "Which man?" The defining clause gives the missing detail.

One interesting point: embedded clauses do not always need who, which, or whose. You can add other information too, like in "Julia, despite the rain, went for a walk" [04:47].

What makes non-defining clauses different?

The second type is the non-defining clause, and here is where things shift a little [05:34].

Non-defining clauses share some traits but not all:

• They begin with relative pronouns, just like defining clauses.
• They can go in the middle or at the end of the sentence.
• They do not define or identify the noun.

And here comes the key difference: the extra information is not needed to understand the sentence.

Take "John's mother, who lives in Colombia, has three children." If you say "John's mother has three children," the sentence is still perfectly clear. The clause who lives in Colombia is just an extra detail [06:23].

Two more examples show the same idea:

• My friend John, who also works as a teacher, is traveling to New York.
• Yesterday, I met a man named Andres, whose wife works in New York.

In each case, you could drop the middle part and the main message survives.

How can you practice relative clauses?

Let's put it into action with a couple of quick exercises from the lesson [07:37].

Read this one and pick the right pronoun: "I've just come back from Paris, ___ Andres lives." The answer is where, because Paris is a place: "I've just come back from Paris, where Andres lives."

Now try this: "I went paragliding, ___ I had never done before." The correct word is which.

To keep practicing, complete these three prompts in the discussion panel with your own relative clauses:

• The man ___ asked for help.
• The car ___ has been sold.
• My friend Jess ___ is traveling to Paris.

You will also find a worksheet in the resources section to reinforce everything. Share your three sentences in the discussion panel and tell me which pronouns you chose.