Relative clauses: African elephant
The Grammar Bit!
Read the three sentences opposite. They each contain a relative clause (bold). A relative clause gives the reader extra information about the preceding noun.
In a relative clause, this extra piece of information is introduced by a relative pronoun (underlined). There are 5 basic relative pronouns: who, which, that, whose and whom.
It is important to note the following:
who – is used when referring to a person
which – is used when referring to a place, animal or thing
that – can refer to a person, place, animal or thing
With your talk partner, read each sentence with and then without the relative clause. What do you notice?
Scintillating Sentences
1) In the searing heat, the African elephants, whose heads each weighed as much as a car, had fought for three days.
2) In the heart of Africa, which is teeming with wildlife, two massive bull elephants were locked in combat.
3) The cameraman was cautious of the raging elephants, whose bodies were fuelled by high levels of testosterone.
“I really don’t care what you think of my trunk. It’s irrelephant!”