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Linguistics & Grammar vocabulary · Clauses and Sentences

Relative clause

Meaning in linguistics & grammar, with examples

/ˌrelətɪv ˈklɔːz/nounCore term

In linguistics & grammar, relative clause means: A clause that gives more information about a noun, usually starting with who, which, that, whose, where or when, as in 'the book that I borrowed'.

In Turkish: sıfat cümleciği, ilgi tümceciği

How it is used

Teachers separate defining relative clauses, which identify the noun and take no commas, from non-defining ones, which add extra information between commas. That cannot introduce a non-defining relative clause.

Example sentences

  1. In 'The student who won the prize is from Van', 'who won the prize' is a relative clause.

  2. Turkish puts the relative clause before the noun ('kazandığım ödül'), while English puts it after ('the prize that I won').

Common collocations

  • defining relative clause
  • non-defining relative clause
  • reduced relative clause
  • relative pronoun
  • clauseA group of words that contains a subject and a verb and forms a sentence or part of a sentence, such as 'because it was raining'.
  • subordinate clauseA clause that depends on a main clause and cannot stand alone as a sentence, such as 'when the bell rang' or 'that she was right'.
  • pronounA word used in place of a noun or noun phrase so that it does not have to be repeated, such as she, it, them, mine, who or myself.
  • noun phraseA group of words built around a noun or pronoun that works as one unit, often as subject or object, such as 'the tall man in the blue coat'.

More terms: Clauses and Sentences

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