Restrictive and Non-Restrictive Elements- Types of Relative Clauses

Grammar – Restrictive and Non-Restrictive Elements

Relative Clause: If a sentence has two phrases connected with words like “who,” “whose,” “which,” “that,” etc., then the phrase beginning with any of these words is said to be a relative clause.

There are Two Types of Relative Clauses:

1. Restrictive Clause: A restrictive clause is a clause that is necessary to make meaning of the sentence. This clause restricts the noun to specify a particular noun. Without the restrictive clause, the sentence will be incomplete and won’t have any meaning.
2. Non-restrictive Clause: A non-restrictive clause is unnecessary to make meaning in the sentence. It is used to provide extra information about the noun. With non-restrictive clauses, we use commas before and after the clause.

Reduced Restrictive Clause: Sometimes, we omit the connectors in a sentence with a restrictive clause without the sentence losing its meaning. Sometimes, you may need to make minor changes to ensure grammatical accuracy.

Rules for the Use of Connectors:

1. That: It is only used with restrictive clauses. It is never used with a non-restrictive clause. It is used to refer to things, not people.
2. Which: It can be used with both restrictive and non-restrictive clauses but is usually preferred in non-restrictive clauses. It is used to refer to things, not people.
3. Who, whom, whose: These can be used in both restrihttps://www.turito.com/learn/english/restrictive-and-unrestrictive-elementsctive and non-restrictive clauses.