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The Daily Insight

What is defining relative clauses with examples?

Author

Rachel Ross

Updated on February 20, 2026

What is defining relative clauses with examples?

As the name suggests, defining relative clauses give essential information to define or identify the person or thing we are talking about. Take for example the sentence: Dogs that like cats are very unusual.

What is difference between defining and non-defining relative clauses?

Defining relative clauses add essential information to a sentence and the clause cannot be omitted. Non-defining relative clauses add non-essential information to a sentence and can be left out of a sentence without changing it’s meaning.

What is an example of a non relative clause?

Here are some more examples of a non-defining relative clause used in a sentence: My mum, who has been baking for years, made us cupcakes. I walk to school with my friend, whose house is next door to mine. My friend, whom I’ve known for years, came to my house today.

How do you define a defining relative clause?

Relative clauses give us information about the person or thing mentioned. Defining relative clauses give us essential information – information that tells us who or what we are talking about. The woman who lives next door works in a bank. These are the flights that have been cancelled.

What is non-defining clause?

Non-defining relative clauses (also known as non-restrictive, or parenthetical, clauses) provide some additional information that is not essential and may be omitted without affecting the contents of the sentence.

How do you teach a defining relative clause?

Relatively Speaking 5 Strategies for Teaching Relative Clauses

  1. Identify In-text.
  2. Introduce the Structure.
  3. Start to Add Relative Clauses to Sentences.
  4. Use Scrambled Sentences.
  5. Create Relevant Writing Tasks.

What is the meaning of non-defining clause?

Non-defining relative clauses are composed of a relative pronoun, a verb, and optional other elements such as the subject or object of the verb. Commas or parentheses are always used to separate non-defining relative clauses from the rest of the sentence.

How do you teach non-defining relative clauses?

We always use a relative pronoun or adverb to start a non-defining relative clause: who, which, whose, when or where (but not that). We also use commas to separate the clause from the rest of the sentence.

What is a non-defining clause?

What are the rules of relative clauses?

Some Rules for Relative Clauses: Relative clauses are formed with the pronouns: who, which, whose, or that and with the adverbs when, where, or why. To know which pronoun to use, look carefully at the relative clause itself. Who refers to people, which refers to things, and that refers to people or things.

What is an example of a relative clause?

A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun or a noun phrase. Example: The man who is smoking is the murderer. The noun the man is modified by the relative clause who is smoking. Relative clauses give essential information to define or identify the person or thing we are talking about.

What are relative clauses?

A relative clause can be used to give additional information about a noun. They are introduced by a relative pronoun like ‘that’, ‘which’, ‘who’, ‘whose’, ‘where’ and ‘when’. For example: I won’t stand by the man who smells of slime. In this example, the relative clause is ‘who smells of slime’. It provides more information about the man.

What is an essential relative clause?

An essential clause is a relative clause that limits a general, ambiguous noun. The essential clause tells the reader which one of many the writer means. Read these examples: The man who ordered another double anchovy pizza claims to have a pet dolphin in his backyard pool.