Relative Clauses
Joining two sentences with who, which, that, whose and where. The man who lives next door.
Relative clauses let you join two short sentences into one longer, smoother sentence. You use them all the time in Sinhala too: "දුබායි ඉන්න යාළුවා". In Sinhala the extra information comes before the noun. In English, it comes after.
noun එකක් ගැන වැඩි විස්තරයක් එකතු කරන වාක්ය කොටස relative clause. ඒක පටන් ගන්නේ who, which, that, whose, where වගේ වචනයකින්. සිංහලෙන් "දුබායි ඉන්න යාළුවා" කියද්දි විස්තරය noun එකට කලින් එනවා. ඉංග්රීසියේ ඒක noun එකට පස්සේ: the friend who lives in Dubai.
Which word?
| For… | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| people | who (or that) | the man who fixed my phone |
| things, animals | which (or that) | the phone which I bought |
| "whose" (belonging) | whose | the girl whose bag was stolen |
| places | where | the town where I grew up |
| times | when | the day when we met |
Two kinds
There are two kinds of relative clauses, and the difference is all about commas.
Defining: tells you which one (no commas)
Which one?
- The woman who visited me in hospital was very kind.
- The umbrella that I bought last week is already broken. ☔
Without the clause, we don't know which woman or which umbrella. → Defining relative clauses
Non-defining: adds extra information (commas)
Extra information
- My grandmother, who will be 86 next Wednesday, walks every morning.
- Sigiriya, which is over 1,500 years old, is a World Heritage Site.
We already know who your grandmother is. The clause is just a bonus. → Non-defining relative clauses
In this section
- Defining relative clauses: the man who lives next door
- Non-defining relative clauses: my sister, who lives in Dubai, …
- Relative clauses with prepositions: the man I spoke to
- And relative adverbs: the place where, the day when
Quick check
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The doctor treated me was very kind.
The bus goes to Galle leaves at 7.
This is the village I grew up.
That's the girl phone was stolen.