--- title: Relative clauses — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Relative clauses», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A relative clause is a clause that tells you more about a noun. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Relative clauses # Relative clauses Lesson 30 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 19 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/30-relative-clauses/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/0/) — A relative clause is a clause that tells you more about a noun. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/1/) — «The boy who won the race smiled.» Which boy? - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/2/) — The one who won the race. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/4/) — It starts with a relative pronoun: who for people, which for things and animals, that for either, whose for belonging, where for places and when for times. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/6/) — That is her dialect, the way people speak where she lives, and it isn't wrong at home; in standard English, for school writing, it is «the girl who helped me». - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/8/) — Sometimes the relative clause is extra information, and then a pair of commas fences it off: «The dog, which was barking loudly, ran away.» Cover the part between the commas and the sentence still works. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/11/) — And watch what the clause is attached to: in «The cat sat on the mat that was black», it is the mat that was black, not the cat. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/13/) — A relative clause gives more information about a noun. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/14/) — Relative clauses usually start with a relative pronoun: who, which, that, whose, where or when. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/15/) — Who is used for people, which for things and animals, and that for either. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/16/) — Whose shows belonging: «the girl whose bike was stolen». - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/17/) — Who's is short for who is or who has, which is not the same as whose. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/18/) — Where can start a relative clause about a place: «the house where I live». - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/19/) — A relative clause that adds extra information is separated by a pair of commas, or a comma and a full stop at the end. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/20/) — Commas around a relative clause can change the meaning of a sentence. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/21/) — The relative pronoun can often be left out when it is not the subject of the clause: «the book I read». - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/22/) — A relative clause describes the noun it comes right after, so place it carefully. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/23/) — In some dialects people say «the lass what helped me»; in standard English it is «the girl who helped me». - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/30-relative-clauses/24/) — Slang: «lass» (Yorkshire, Scotland) means girl; «peng» (London) means really good; «rizz» means charm. - ← previous: [Fronted adverbials](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/29-fronted-adverbials/) - next →: [Tense consistency and verb forms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/31-tense-consistency-and-verb-forms/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)