In Grammar 4-1 , you reviewed some relative clause structures. All of the examples you were shown and worked on were defining relative clauses. A defining relative clause contains necessary information that identifies the noun the speaker is referring to.

  • The boy who was playing football was Jim. (which boy?)
  • My friend that I met in New York loves baseball. (which friend?)

Without the information in the defining relative clauses, it isn’t clear which ‘boy’ and ‘friend’ the speakers are referring to.

In this lesson, you’ll be looking at variations of defining relative clauses.

Omitting the Relative Pronoun

Sometimes, we can omit the relative pronoun to shorten a defining relative clause. This is especially common in informal situations.

In this example, the word television is being defined:

  • The television that he bought was for the living room.

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Exercise

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