Extra Information Relative Clauses

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Welcome to your Extra Information Relative Clauses lesson! In this topic we talk about:
• Types of relative clauses
• Using “who”, “which” and “that”
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Types of relative clauses

There are two types of relative clauses:

Type 1	Type 2
*“The man who I work with is from Japan.”* *“They own a business that imports steel.”* *“I tried the restaurant that you recommended.”*	*“My cousin, who is from Japan, will be there tonight.”* *“She told me about the film, which she enjoyed very much.”* *“We ate at Lai Ho, which a friend recommended.“*
In this type of sentence, the relative clause tells us which person or thing the speaker means: “Who I work with” tells us which man. “That imports steel” tells us which business. “That you recommended” tells us which restaurant.	In this type of sentence the relative clause gives us more information about the person or thing the speaker is talking about. We already know which person, which film and which restaurant the speaker means.
We do not use commas with these types of relative clauses.	We use commas with these types of relative clauses.

Using “who”, “which” and “that”

In both types of relative clauses we can use “who” for people and “which” for things. However:

Type 1

Type 2

You can use “that”:

“I know a guy who / that lives in Japan.”

“They own a business which / that imports steel.”

You cannot use “that”:

“Jonny, who lives in Japan, works in a pub.”
(not “that”)

“She told me about the film, which she enjoyed very much.”
(not “that”)

You can leave out “who”, “that” or “which” when it is the object:

“We tried the restaurant (that) you recommended.”

“Yesterday I saw a man(that)I used to work with.”

You can never leave out “who” or “which”:

“We ate at Lai Ho, which a friend recommended.”

“I saw Bob yesterday, who I hadn’t seen for a while.”

We rarely use “whom” in this type of clause.

We can use “whom” for people, when they are the object of the sentence:

“I saw Bob yesterday, whom I hadn’t seen for a while.”

In both types of relative clause you can use “whose” and “where”:

Type 1	Type 2
*“I know a man whose father is a judge.”* *“There’s a great restaurant where they serve a sushi buffet.”*	*“Bob, whose father is a judge, is on holiday.”* *“Lai Ho restaurant, where a friend works, is a really good restaurant.”*