Relative Clauses — Adding Information Without Starting a New Sentence

🎯 B1–B2
⏱️ 5 min

💬 Grammar that sounds smart: Instead of writing two short sentences — “This is the student. She won the prize.” — you can say: “This is the student who won the prize.” One sentence. More elegant. Cambridge exams reward this.

Relative Clauses — Adding Information Smoothly

Pronoun	Refers to	Example
who	people	The teacher who inspired me retired last year.
which	things / animals	The book which she recommended was excellent.
that	people or things (defining)	The bag that I lost had my passport in it.
whose	possession	The student whose essay won is from Paris.
where	places	The café where we met has closed.

Defining vs Non-Defining

Defining (no commas)

Essential — tells us which one:
The woman who called left a message.
(We need the clause to identify the woman)

Non-Defining (with commas)

Extra info — remove it, sentence still works:
My mother, who lives in Chittagong, called me.
No “that” in non-defining clauses.

🎯 Quick Practice — Add who, which, that, whose, or where

The city ___ I was born has changed a lot.
The man ___ wallet was stolen called the police.
Have you seen the film ___ everyone is talking about?
My sister, ___ is a nurse, works nights.

Reveal Answers ▼

where
whose
that / which
who

✅ Takeaway: who (people) · which (things) · that (people/things, defining only) · whose (possession) · where (places). Commas = non-defining. No “that” in non-defining clauses.

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