Notes: Relative Clauses | Writing for Academic IELTS PDF Download

Introduction to Relative Clauses 

•  Relative clauses are parts of a sentence that give more information about a noun or pronoun. They are called "relative" because they relate to a noun mentioned earlier in the sentence. 
•  These clauses are introduced by relative pronouns like "who," "whom," "whose," "which," and "that," or by relative adverbs like "where," "when," and "why." The choice of which word to use depends on what the clause is doing in the sentence. For example: 
•  Relative pronoun: "The person who called me is my friend." 
•  Relative adverb: "This is the place where we met." " 

Function of Relative Clauses 

•  Relative clauses add extra information about a noun or pronoun, acting like adjectives to describe or specify them more clearly. For instance: 
•  "The book that she is reading is interesting." (Here, the clause tells us more about the book.) 
•  "I met the person who won the competition." (This clause gives us more details about the person.) " 

Types of Relative Clauses 

 1. Restrictive Relative Clauses 

•  These clauses provide essential information needed to identify the noun or pronoun they modify. They are not separated by commas. 
•  Example: "The car that is parked outside is mine." (Here, the clause is necessary to specify which car is being referred to.) " 

2. Nonrestrictive Relative Clauses 

•  These clauses offer extra, nonessential information about the noun or pronoun. They are set off by commas. 
•  Example: "My brother, who is a doctor, lives in London." (The clause adds information about the brother but is not essential to identify him.) " 

Placement of Relative Clauses 

•  Relative clauses can be placed immediately after the noun or pronoun they modify or at the end of the sentence. 
•  Examples: 
•  "The boy who is playing soccer is my neighbor." (Here, the clause follows the noun "boy.") 
•  "I bought a new car, which is blue." (In this case, the clause comes at the end of the sentence, providing additional information about the car.) " 

Relative clauses allow for the expansion and clarification of ideas by providing more details about the noun or pronoun. They contribute to more precise and descriptive writing by adding information that is relevant and specific to the context. Understanding how to construct and use relative clauses helps in enhancing sentence structure and conveying information effectively.

Relative clauses are a type of complex sentence.

It essential that you know how to write complex sentences if you want to do well in the IELTS writing test.

Here are some examples used in an IELTS task 1:

• Consumption of pizzas was far higher than hamburgers, which were consumed approximately 5 times a year.
• Community contributions, which were the second largest revenue source, brought in 10.4% of overall income, and this was followed by program revenue, at 2.2%.

Here are some examples from task 2 essays:

• CO₂, which damages the ozone layer, comes from several sources, but the most problematic are those coming from the burning of fossil fuels from power plants. 
• Email and social networking sites such as Facebook and MSN have created online communities that are global in scale.

8 Essential Rules about Relative Clauses

1. Relative clauses modify nouns, and they must come after the noun they are modifying:

In the first sentence, the relative clause is referring to "the car", so it comes after that noun. In the second sentence it is referring to "the garage".

2. There must be an independent and dependent clause:

3. As there are two clauses, there must be a subject and verb in each:  

This is because a relative clause is two simple sentences joined together. In other words:

4. If you miss part of one of the clauses out, or one of the subjects or verbs, you will create a fragment (an incomplete sentence):

5. The verb in the relative clause must agree (i.e. singular subject takes singular verb) with the noun it is modifying:

6. If the information is ‘extra’ information, there are commas:

• The car, which is my father’s, is in the garage.

The relative clause is not identifying the noun, it is just extra information about who owns it.

7. If the information is ‘essential’, there are no commas:

• The car which is in front of the house is mine.
• This is identifying which car, so it is essential.  There are probably other cars, so without the relative clause we will not know which car is being talked about.
• In other words, if you said "the car is mine", this would not help us. Which car?

8. With ‘essential’ relative clauses, ‘that’ can replace ‘who’ or ‘which’:

• The car that is in front of the house is mine.
• The police have not found the person that stole my car.