Welcome to
ESL Printables,
the website where English Language teachers exchange resources:
worksheets, lesson plans, activities, etc.
Our collection is growing every day with the help of many teachers. If
you want to download you have to send your own contributions.
Relative clauses, omitting pronouns, identifying subject and object....
Hi Everyone,
My head is spinning! I am in the process of trying to teach relative clauses and we are moving on to omitting the pronoun. Our textbook doesn�t define when we can omit the pronoun very well - or at least, not with much detail - my students are confused with identifying the subject and the object (as we know that we can drop the pronoun if it replaces the object) and are asking about specific definitions regarding defining subject, indirect subject, object and indirect object.... I explain but for some students I am succeeding in only making them more confused...
So... does anyone have any bright ideas regarding explaining what is the subject etc? I dont mind if it is i the format of a worksheet or any little trick you use to explain verbally) I know that learning English is a little like a maths course in that there are formulas for many sentence structures - I just cant seem to find it for this and have limited resources.
Hi, a fairly good trick is to tell them that they can omit the relative pronoun when the clause contains a distinct "subject" of it�s own. (It works about 95% of the time).
The man, who visited Niagara Falls, is my brother. - here who is the "subject" of the relative so you cannot remove it.
The man, (who) I met at Niagara Falls, knows my brother. - "who" is not the subject, "I" is the subject therefore it can be removed.
More examples:
Niagara Falls is the place that has famous waterfalls. - cannot omit - no separate "subject"
Niagara Falls is the place (that/where) we go each summer. - can omit, separate subject.
Niagara falls is the place (where/that) I saw Jerry. - can omit...
2.The girls who serve in the shop are the
owner�s daughters.
3. The stairs which lead to the cellar are rather
slippery.
The pronoun �who � / �which � cannot be omitted because it is subject. (The pronoun replaces a subject)
Object:
1.The man (whom)(who)(that) I saw told me
to come back today.
2.The girls (whom)(that) he employs are
always complaining about their work.
3.
The car (which)(that) I hired broke down after five kilometers.
The pronoun �who � or �whom � or �that � or �which � can be omitted because it is object. (The pronoun replaces an object)
Notice that all the clauses above are DEFINING RELATIVE clauses. When the Relatives are NON-DEFINING the pronouns cannot be omitted whether they are subjects or objects. Al.
