Relative Clauses: who, which, that, where

Relative clauses give extra information about a person, thing, or place.

They help you join two sentences into one sentence.

1. What is a relative clause?

A relative clause comes after a noun and gives more information about it.

Joining Two Sentences

Examples:

• Two sentences: “I have a friend. She lives in London.”
  → One sentence: “I have a friend who lives in London.”
• Two sentences: “This is a book. It is very interesting.”
  → One sentence: “This is a book that is very interesting.”

2. Who (people)

We use who for people.

Structure

Person + who + verb + (rest of clause)

Examples:

• “I have a friend who lives in London.”
• “She is the teacher who helps me.”
• “That is the man who called you.”

In these examples, who is the person doing the action.

3. Who, that, and which: choosing the word

Use who for people. For things, use that as the everyday choice in defining relative clauses. Which is also correct, but it is more common in formal or written English.

Things

Thing + that/which + verb + (rest of clause)

Examples:

• “This is the book that is very interesting.”
• “I have a phone that has a good camera.”
• Formal notice: “The film which begins at eight has subtitles.”

In these examples, that or which refers back to the thing before it.

4. That for people

For people, who is usually the better choice. In defining relative clauses, you can also use that, especially in everyday speech.

Compare:

• Person: “The teacher who helps me is kind.” / “The teacher that helps me is kind.”
• Person: “The neighbour who lives upstairs is friendly.” / “The neighbour that lives upstairs is friendly.”
• Person: “The man who works at the bank is my uncle.” / “The man that works at the bank is my uncle.”

In careful writing, who is often preferred for people.

5. Where (places)

We use where for places to mean ‘in/at that place’: ‘the house where I live’ (= ‘the house (that) I live in’).

Use where for places only. For a day or time, use when: “the day when we met”.

Structure

place + where + clause (subject + verb + ...)

Examples:

• “This is the house where I live.”
• “That is the restaurant where we ate.”
• “I know a place where we can relax.”

Which or where?

• “The café which serves breakfast is near my home.” The café does the action, so we use which.
• “The café where we had breakfast is near my home.” The action happened at the café, so we use where.

6. Can we leave out the relative word?

The rule below applies to who, which, and that.

If the relative word is the subject of the relative clause, you must use it. It normally comes directly before the verb:

• “The man who lives here is my teacher.”
• “The phone that is on the desk is mine.”
• ✗ “The man lives here is my teacher.” → ✓ “The man who lives here is my teacher.”

If another person or thing is the subject, the relative word is the object, so you can often leave it out:

• “The book (that) I read is good.” / “The book I read is good.”
• “The film (that) my parents recommended was excellent.” / “The film my parents recommended was excellent.”
• “The person (who) I met was helpful.” / “The person I met was helpful.”

7. Quick recap

• who → people
• that → people or things
• which → things, especially in formal or written English
• where → places

This table shows the basic choices:

Relative word	Use it for	Example
who	people	“the person who works here”
that	people or things, especially things in everyday English	“the phone that is on the desk”
which	things, especially in formal or written English	“the film which begins at eight”
where	places	“the house where I live”