Relative adverb clauses

Relative adverbs are often considered quite simple structures in
English but, because of the differences between languages and their
stylistic complications, they are quite difficult to learn
to use for many learners, especially those whose first languages
differ from English in the use of relative adverbs (i.e., most of
them).

Relative adverbs vs. relative pronouns

What follows assumes you have followed a guide to relative clauses
and/or are familiar with their structure.
The difference here is that relative adverbs modify
the verb whereas relative pronouns refer to the
noun (or whatever part of the sentence is performing a noun’s
grammatical function).
For this reason, in what follows we will not be referring to
relative adverb clauses as adjectival.  While relative pronoun
clauses may be so described, because, in fact, the clause acts to
modify a noun and that is the central role of adjectives, adverb
clauses, as the name implies, modify how the verb is seen rather
than pivoting on the noun phrase.
The difference can be exemplified by considering what it is that the
speaker wants to highlight:

1. This is the house which he bought
   in which the pronoun which is referenced to the

   noun

   phrase the house
   because it is the most important element and the object.
   We can rephrase this as:
   He bought this house (Subject – Verb – Object)
   (Because the house is the object of this restrictive (or
   defining) relative clause, the pronoun, which, can be omitted.)

2. This is the house where he lived
   in which the adverb where modifies the

   verb

   phrase lived
   because the location is what we need to highlight.
   We can rephrase that as:
   He lived here (Subject – Verb – Adverbial)

That, of course, is only one way in which
adverbs and pronouns differ but it is a very important way.

Another good reason for keeping the concepts of adverb and pronoun
relative clauses separate is that defining or restrictive relative pronoun clauses act
syntactically and semantically to subordinate one clause to another. 
Relative adverbs clauses, on the other hand, are coordinating and
their removal leaves two well formed clauses which can stand alone. 
If, for example, you remove the adverb from:
    That’s the house where he got married
you get
    That’s the house.  He got married
and, although some sense is lost, the clauses are, nevertheless,
potentially independent.
You can’t do the same sort of thing with relative pronoun clauses
because they are subordinating constructions.  Removing the
relative pronoun from:
    That’s the clergyman who married them
leaves nonsense:
    *That’s the clergyman.  Married them.

A further difference is revealed when we attempt to convert
post-modifying elements into pre-modifying elements so, for example,
we can convert a relative pronoun clause such as:
    The house which is in the middle
to
    The middle house
but no such conversion works with a relative adverb clause and we
cannot derive:
    *The we married house
from
    The house where we were married

Structurally, however, in other ways there are close parallels between adverbial
relative clauses and pronoun relative clause because they both have
the structure of
    Noun phrase + Adverb / Pronoun + Verb phrase.
We can teach the forms in tandem but
functionally, we need to make a clear difference because the
communicative impact of adverb relative clauses and pronoun relative
clause is, as we see above, very different.

Finally, we need to note that adverb relative clauses are nearly
always restrictive insofar as they define the noun to which they
modify.  So, for example:
    The house where he lived in 1960 has been
demolished
clearly defines the house as does:
    The house which he bought in 1960 has been
demolished
but:
    The house, which he bought in 1960, has been
demolished
does not define the house at all, it simply adds information.
It is very much rarer, and often impossible, to use adverb relative
clauses as non-defining elements of the sentence but it is just
possible to have:
    The house, where he lived in 1960, has been demolished.

What are relative adverbs?

Simply put, they are adverbials. 
They are, in fact, adjuncts.
(If the term adjunct is unfamiliar to you,
you need not worry about it now.  It refers to the fact that
the adverbial is integral to the sentence and not being used to
connect two sentences or refer to the speaker’s perception. 
There is a guide to adverbials classified this way
on the site, linked below.)

They act as adjuncts in four ways.  This first of these
example sets shows how a relative adverb is used and the second how
the sentence may be rephrased with a simpler adverbial adjunct:

1. Place

   :
       This is the
   restaurant where we met.
      
   We met

   here

2. Time

   :
       That was the
   moment when she decided to give up.
      
   She decided to give up

   then

3. Reason

   :
       That was the
   reason why he got angry.
      
   He got angry

   because of that

4. Manner

   :
       This was how he
   arrived at the figure.
      
   He arrived at the figure

   thus

Style issues

Tautology: are relative adverbs unnecessary?

There are those who consider the use of relative adverbs
unnecessary, superfluous, redundant and tautologous.  So:

Adverb
Instead of …
… some prefer
an adverbial wh-phrase…
or a simple
Subject + Verb + Adverbial structure 

where
That is the
hotel where he stayed
That is
where he stayed
He stayed
in that hotel

when
That was the
time when she left
That is
when he left
She left
then

why
That is the
reason why she hurt herself
That is why
she hurt herself
She hurt
herself because of that

how
No form
possible
This is how
it was done
It was done
this way

This is certainly an arguable point of view when the noun
(technically the antecedent noun) is a generalised word such as
time, reason, place, location, phase, period, moment, building,
house etc.  Because the adverbial refers to a place, a
time or a reason, it does seem unnecessary and many think it poor
style, to insert the nouns (hotel, time, reason) at all.  In fact, as we shall see,
the adverb how does not allow an antecedent noun at all.

Speakers do, however, have reasons for choices and there is a
cline between wholly generalised nouns (such as place, time,
period) to very specific ones (such as corner of the room,
hour, exact second) with lots of more-or-less general terms in
between (such as house, building, year, month etc.). 
There is, then, a stylistically acceptable range and individual
users of the language will draw the lines where they will.  You
decide which you prefer in this list:

• That was (the moment) when I decided.
• This is (the building) where he died.
• Here is (the room) where he wrote Bleak House.
• That is (the day) when he was born.
• That was (the year) when America became independent.
• This is (the time) when we should stop.

And so on.  The rule, such as it is, is:

If the speaker wishes, for
whatever reason, to emphasise the nature of the antecedent noun,
then it will be included in an adverb relative clause.

In other words, if I wish to be clear that I am talking about a
garden rather than any other kind of open space I will prefer:
    This is the garden where I first met my wife
over:
    This is where I first met my wife.

Formality

Generally, the use of relative adverbs is considered less formal
than the use of an adverbial prepositional phrase.  It is easy enough for
you to identify the formal and informal versions of the following, so click on the table when you have.

The issue here for learners is that if they use the formal
versions, they need to select the appropriate preposition and avoid
errors like:

• *That is the year on which he discovered it.
• *This is the room at which they spoke.
• *That was the day in which she arrived.

Using adverbial relative clauses avoids the need for the
prepositions altogether because those three examples can be
rephrased as:

• That is (the year) when he discovered it.
• This is the room where they spoke.
• That was (the day) when she arrived.

Form issues

When and Where

No particular structural issues or restrictions arise with these
two adverbs in relative clauses.
However, English distinguishes between time and place adverbs and
many other languages do not, using a single adverb or relative
pronoun to cover both
(because, obviously, the hearer knows by the context and co-text
whether time or place is meant).  That can be a source of
errors such as
    *The is the place which we met
    *That is the day what we met
and so on.
It is, therefore, quite important to make it clear how English
differentiates between time (using when) and place (using
where).  Like this:

Time

This is when we met
Last Monday was when we met
That was the year when he met her
and so on.
Many will aver that the use of an adverb clause here is
unnecessary and clumsy and those sentences would be better as:
    We met then
    We met last Monday
    He met her that year
etc.

Place

That was where we met
Outside the café was where we met
That is the place where he met her
Again, many would prefer simpler forms:
    We met there
    We met outside the café
    He met her in this place

Antecedents (i.e., the place or time referred to) can be noun
phrases, pronouns, prepositional phrases or adverbs.
(When the antecedent is a noun phrase, a noun or a pronoun, it is,
naturally, arguable that the adverb takes on the nature of a pronoun
and that, therefore, such sentences should fall under the heading of
relative pronoun structures.  They are, however, dealt with
here because their structural characteristics remain adverbial.)
Like
this:

Noun phrases

The café in the park is where they met
The year before last is when they met

Pronouns

That is where they met
This is where we went
It is where they met
It was when they met
That was when they met
This is when it happened

Prepositional phrases

Outside the tennis courts is where they met
On Thursday is when they met

Adverbs

Here is where they met
Then is when they met

Defining vs. non-defining clauses

Both where and when as relative
adverbs can be used in defining (restrictive) clauses or in
non-defining (non-restrictive) clauses so the following are all
possible but subtly altered in meaning.

either …

… or …
… but …

The office,
where he spends most of his time, is upstairs
The office
where he spends most of his time is upstairs
The first gives
us extra, supplementary information and the second defines
the office.

That
January day, on
which she arrived, was foggy and cold
That
January day on
which she arrived was foggy and cold
The
first gives us extra, supplementary information and the
second defines the day in terms of her arrival.

That
January day,
when she arrived, was foggy and cold
That
January day
when she arrived was foggy and cold

The adverb why cannot be used in non-defining
(non-restrictive) clauses.  It always occurs,
if we allow it at all, in defining (restrictive) clauses.  We
can, perhaps, have:
    The reasons why he wanted the money are unclear.
but
    *The reasons, why he wanted the money, are unclear.
is unacceptable.
The adverb how cannot be used this way at all, as we
shall shortly see because no antecedent noun is allowable.

Why

The use of why as a relative adverb is often considered
plain wrong, whatever the circumstances.
Why should that be? 

Click here when you have the answer.

Virtually only the word reason can be the antecedent noun. 
We can have:
    That was the reason why he came.
However, we can’t have other words (even those which are close synonyms).
   
*That was the purpose why he said it.
   
*That was the ground why she complained.
   
*That was the object why he went there.
   
*This was the motive why she did it.
As this is the case, it seems unnecessary to teach
why as a relative adverb at all because the antecedent
reason can always be left
out.
This leaves us teaching only the simple structure of why
followed by a clause as in, e.g.:
    That was why she did it.

How

This word can operate as a wh- adjunct in expressions
like:
    He told me how to do it
    She showed me how to get there
    She did it just how she wanted
etc. but it cannot function with an antecedent
noun.  It is not possible in English to have, therefore:
    *This is the manner how she did it.
    *That is the direction how she told me
   
*This is the way how he told me.
It is possible to use it without the
antecedent noun as
in, e.g.,
   
This is how she did it.
    That was how she showed me
   
This is how he told me to do it
There is an argument, therefore, that how is not a
relative adverb at all.

Be aware that other languages are much more forgiving and
how is commonly used with
antecedent nouns.  That is the root of many errors.

Emphasis: the -ever series

For emphasis, the -ever suffix can be used.  For example:
    I don’t know why ever he did that!
    Do it however you like
    Come whenever it suits you
    The office, wherever it is, is probably closed
Incidentally, why + ever is always written as two
words.

Free relative clauses

These belong neither here nor in the guide to relative pronoun
clauses.  They are included here for simplicity because they
share some characteristics with relative adverb clauses.

The reason these are called free relative clauses is that they do
not refer to an already specified noun or noun phrase but contain
within themselves the antecedent for the relative pronoun.
In this sense they are similar to fused relative pronoun clauses
which are considered in the guide to relative pronouns clauses.
Here’s an example of how they work with a little analysis:
    I don’t know where he went
    What I need is a new hammer
    Why he came is a mystery
    How you do this is difficult for me to imagine
    Say what you like, he’s been a great help to us
    Whoever said that is not telling you the truth
and so on.
All of these can be rephrased using a relative pronoun or adverb
clause as in:
    I don’t know to which place he went
    It is a new hammer which I need
    It is a mystery why he came
    It is difficult to see how you do this
    Whatever you say, he has been a great help to us
    The person who told you that is not telling the truth.
etc.

Analysing these as free or, in some analyses, headless relative
clauses is actually not too helpful.
What they really are, in most cases, is nominalised clauses, i.e.,
clauses performing the function of nouns, either as subjects or
objects of verbs.  For example,
The first example can be rephrased with a simple noun phrase as:
    I don’t know his location now
and we can nominalise the wh-phrase or clause as the
subject or object of the verb:
    Where he is now is a mystery (subject)
    What he wants is a new car (object)
All these share the characteristics of nominalised clauses, to
which, naturally, there is a guide on this site linked in the list of related guides at the end.
They can also be, rather more usefully, analysed as wh-cleft sentences. 
See the guide linked in the list of related guides at the end, for more.

There are, in some analyses, two sorts of free relative clauses
and we should consider them here:

1. Definite free relative adverb clauses are introduced by
   what, where, and when.  For
   example:
       He eats what he likes
       She went when she had heard enough
       I shall sleep where I can
2. Indefinite free relative clauses are introduced by
   who(m)ever, whichever, whatever, wherever, and
   whenever.  For example:
       I can help with whatever you need
       Who(m) ever you ask will know where I live
       Whichever you choose will be OK
       Wherever you go you will see him
       Whenever he arrives, he’ll be welcome

All these can, of course, and probably should, be analysed as
nominalised clauses functioning grammatically as the object or
subject of the verb or simply as adverbial phrases.  In some
cases, the issue is to do with subordination so the whole area of
so-called free relative clauses is fraught with peril and, most
probably, better left well alone.

Other languages and teaching the area

This is an area which needs handling with some care.

Many languages deploy similar constructions which sometimes makes
comprehension of the function of relative adverbs straightforward
(Italian, for example, operates very similarly to English). 
However, the restrictions above concerning what is possible and what
is not, what is stylistically informal and what is not will not be
readily understood because languages vary quite dramatically in this
respect.

Grammatically, too, languages vary a good deal in this area with
no one-to-one overlap between structures across languages. 
Some, for example, will use a different relative adverb in the past
and in the present.  Others will have words which function as
relative adverbs but not as relative pronouns and vice versa.
Other languages, French and Romanian for example, use the same
adverb for time and place.
Many languages, such as Spanish, Dutch, Czech, Russian, Swedish and
other Scandinavian languages, German and Greek, abjure the use of why
as a relative adverb, preferring a phrase translatable as for
that or therefore.  This expression differs from
the form of why used in questions.  So, instead of:
    This is why he came
the expression will be translatable as something
    Therefore he came
or
    For that he came
Some languages, such as Greek, do not have separate adverbs for
all the functions and will form the clause with a relative pronoun
instead, translatable as something like:
    That was the moment which he decided.
Many languages, such as Japanese and Korean do not use relative
adverbs (or pronouns) at all, preferring to directly modify the verb
rather than constructing subordinate clauses.

Production rather than comprehension should, therefore, be the
focus because the forms are simple enough to understand (usually)
but not at all intuitive to produce for speakers of many languages.

Form

Primarily, the issues to make sure of are:

1. The restrictions on the use of why
   As we saw above, why can always be used without
   the antecedent noun (because only reason(s)) is the
   possible choice.  That’s a reason not to bother people with
   it and confine ourselves to teaching
      
   That’s why he came
      
   This is why I’m asking
   etc.
   Instead of the clumsy:
       That’s the reason why he came
       This is the reason why I’m asking
   The fact that why cannot be used in non-defining
   clauses rarely causes problems.
2. The severe restrictions on the use of how in
   English are not parallelled in many languages so it is worth
   devoting a teaching sequence to its use in English or errors
   such as
       *That’s the way how I did it
       *It is the usual method
   how we do it
   will occur frequently.
   When they do
   occur, the sensible approach is to tackle the error immediately
   and make it clear that no antecedent noun can be used with
   how clauses.

Style

is more important, arguably.

If the presentation of the area does not include a clear and
explicit focus on style, then error will occur.  In other
languages, the distinctions are nothing like parallel.  In
German, for example, the use of prepositional phrases such as in
which (in dem, for example) is standard and not considered
particularly formal so speakers of Germanic languages can sound
stilted when they use them, saying, for example:
    This is the classroom in which we meet
when a native speaker would probably prefer:
    This is the classroom where we meet
or just
    This is where we meet
Even in German, the alternative use of a relative
adverb does occur, incidentally.

Leaving out generalised antecedent nouns can be handled by a
compare-and-contrast, awareness-raising approach using, e.g.,

• That was when he lost his temper vs. That was
  the exact time when he lost his temper.
• This is where we eat vs. This is (the
  restaurant) where we eat vs. This is the
  Chinese restaurant where we eat.

Getting learners to notice the emphasis the speaker wants to put
on the noun is an important first step to production.
Then you can go on to getting them to say something true about their
own lives using both specific and more generalised nouns
appropriately.  As in, e.g.:
    The exact time when I was born
vs. When I was born
    The village where I was born vs.
Where I was born
    The reason why I am learning English vs.
The exact purpose for which I am learning English
etc.

Summary

Here’s a brief cut-out-and-keep summary of the area:

Related guides

adverbials
for more about adjuncts, conjuncts and
disjuncts

relative pronoun clauses
for more on relative
clauses using pronouns rather than adverbs

wh-questions
for an area allied to the use of
relative adverbs

subordination
for more on other ways to make ideas
depend on others

nominalised clauses
for more on an alternative way of
seeing free relative clauses

cleft sentences
for a consideration of how to analyse
some free relative clauses

Học tiếng Anh

Mệnh đề quan hệ (Relative clauses) được sử dụng để rút gọn câu mà vẫn diễn tả đủ ý. Đây là chủ điểm ngữ pháp quan trọng cần nắm vững trong tiếng Anh, thường xuất hiện trong nhiều dạng đề thi.

> Câu điều kiện, mệnh đề If 1,2,3 – Công thức và bài tập vận dụng

> Quy tắc đọc và viết ngày tháng tiếng Anh

Kênh Tuyển Sinh tổng hợp tất cả kiến thức quan trọng về mệnh đề quan hệ – định nghĩa, phân loại, cách dùng, lưu ý, ví dụ cụ thể và chi tiết.

Mệnh đề quan hệ là một chủ điểm ngữ pháp quan trọng trong tiếng Anh

1. Định nghĩa mệnh đề quan hệ (Relative Clause)

Trước khi tìm hiểu về mệnh đề (clause), hãy cùng tìm hiểu qua một số đại từ quan hệ (relative pronouns) nhé!

Trong tiếng Anh có những đại từ quan hệ cơ bản sau:

Đại từ quan hệ Cách sử dụng Who Làm chủ ngữ, đại diện ngôi người which Làm chủ ngữ hoặc tân ngữ, đại diện ngôi đồ vật, động vật

Bổ sung cho cả câu đứng trước nó whose Chỉ sở hữu cho người và vật whom Đại diện cho tân ngữ chỉ người That Đại diện cho chủ ngữ chỉ người, vật, đặc biệt trong mệnh đề quan hệ xác định (who, which vẫn có thê sử dụng được)

Khi này, chúng ta sử dụng mệnh đề quan hệ (Relative Clause) nhằm bổ nghĩa cho danh từ đứng trước nó. Vì là một mệnh đề nên chúng vẫn có cấu trúc chủ ngữ vị ngữ cơ bản của một câu. Mệnh đề quan hệ đứng ngay sau danh từ mà nó bổ nghĩa.

Ví dụ:

• Lord Thompson, who is 76, has just retired.
• This is the house which Jack built.
• Marie Curie is the woman that discovered radium.

2. Các loại mệnh đề quan hệ 

Có hai loại mệnh đề quan hệ: mệnh đề quan hệ xác định và mệnh đề quan hệ không xác định.

Mệnh đề quan hệ xác định (Defining Relative Clause)

Defining Relative Cluase được dùng để xác định danh từ đứng trước nó. Mệnh đề xác định là mệnh đề cần thiết cho ý nghĩa của câu, không có nó câu sẽ không đủ nghĩa. Nó được sử dụng khi danh từ là danh từ không xác định và không dùng dấu phẩy ngăn cách nó với mệnh đề chính. 

Trong mệnh đề này, chúng ta có thể sử dụng that thay thế cho who và which:

Ví dụ: 

Marie Curie is the woman that discovered radium.
This is the house that Jack built.

Đồng thời, chúng ta cũng có thể loại bỏ danh từ nếu nó đã là tân ngữ trong mệnh đề quan hệ.

Ví dụ: This is the house that Jack built. (that is the object of built)

Mệnh đề quan hệ không xác định (Non-defining relative clauses)

Non-defining relative clause là mệnh đề cung cấp thêm thông tin về một người, một vật hoặc một sự việc đã được xác định. Mệnh đề không xác định là mệnh đề không nhất thiết phải có trong câu, không có nó câu vẫn đủ nghĩa. Nó được sử dụng khi danh từ là danh từ xác định và được ngăn cách với mệnh đề chính bằng một hoặc hai dấu phẩy (,) hay dấu gạch ngang (-)

Ví dụ: Dalat, which I visited last summer, is very beautiful. 

Làm thế nào để xác định loại của mệnh đề quan hệ?

Để có thể xác định được loại mệnh đề quan hệ, bạn hãy chú ý đến danh từ mà nó bổ nghĩa. Đối với Non-defining relative clauses, danh từ được bổ nghĩa trong mệnh đề thường là: 

• Danh từ riêng
• Tính từ sở hữu (my, his, her, their)
• Danh từ đi với this , that, these, those

3. Cách dùng mệnh đề quan hệ 

Đối với các đại từ quan hệ who, whom, which

Who

Làm chủ từ trong mệnh đề quan hệ.

Thay thế cho danh từ chỉ người. 

 ….. N (person) + who + V + O

Ví dụ: I don’t know who he is

Whom

Làm túc từ cho động từ trong mệnh đề quan hệ.

Thay thế cho danh từ chỉ người.

…..N (person) + whom + S + V

Ví dụ: The girl whom John is dating is really beautiful.

Which

Làm chủ từ hoặc túc từ trong mệnh đề quan hệ.

Thay thế cho danh từ chỉ vật

….N (thing) + which + V + O

….N (thing) + which + S + V

Ví dụ: The car which I have just bought suddenly broken down.

Whose

Chỉ sở hữu cho danh từ chỉ người hoặc vật, thường thay cho các từ: her, his, their, hoặc hình thức ‘s

…..N (person, thing) + whose + N + V ….

Ví dụ: This is George, whose brother went to school with me.

Đối với đại từ quan hệ that 

That có thể thay thế cho vị trí của who, whom, which trong mệnh đề quan hệ quan hệ xác định.

Các trường hợp sử dụng that:

• Khi đi sau các hình thức so sánh nhất.

Ví dụ: He was the most interesting person that I have ever met.

• Khi đi sau các từ chỉ cấp độ như only, the first, the last:

Ví dụ: It was the first time that I heard of it.

• Khi danh từ đi trước bao gồm cả người và vật. 

Ví dụ: These books are all that my sister left me.

• Khi đi sau các đại từ bất định, đại từ phủ định, đại từ chỉ số lượng: no one, nobody, nothing, anyone, anything, anybody, someone, something, somebody, all, some, any, little, none.

Ví dụ: She talked about the people and places that she had visited.

Lưu ý: Bạn không được phép sử dụng đại từ that trong các mệnh đề quan hệ không xác định và khi nó đứng sau giới từ.

Đối với các trạng từ quan hệ 

Why Mở đầu cho mệnh đề quan hệ chỉ lý do, thường thay cho cụm for the reason, for that reason.

…..N (reason) + why + S + V …

Ví dụ: I don’t know the reason why you didn’t go to school.

Where Thay thế từ chỉ nơi chốn, thường thay cho there

….N (place) + where + S + V ….

(WHERE = ON / IN / AT + WHICH)

Ví dụ: 

The hotel where we stayed wasn’t very clean.

The hotel at which we stayed wasn’t very clean.

When Thay thế từ chỉ thời gian, thường thay cho từ then

….N (time) + when + S + V …

(WHEN = ON / IN / AT + WHICH)

Ví dụ:

Do you still remember the day when we first met?

Do you still remember the day on which we first met?

4. Cách rút gọn mệnh đề quan hệ

Với các mệnh đề quan hệ rút gọn, bạn nên sử dụng cấu trúc này như thế nào?

Mệnh đề quan hệ được rút thành cụm phân từ:

Mệnh đề quan hệ chứa các đại từ quan hệ làm chủ từ who, which, that có thể được rút gọn thành cụm hiện tại phân từ (V-ing) hoặc quá khứ phân từ (V3/ed).

• Nếu mệnh đề quan hệ là mệnh đề chủ động thì rút thành cụm hiện tại phân từ (V-ing).

Ví dụ: 

The man who is standing over there is my father.

→ The man standing over there is my father.

The couple who live next door to me are professors.

→ The couple living next door to me are professors.

• Nếu mệnh đề quan hệ là mệnh đề bị động thì rút thành cụm quá khứ phân từ (V3/ed).

Ví dụ: 

The instructions that are given on the front page are very important.

→ The instructions given on the front page are very important.

The book which was bought by my mother is interesting.

→ The book bought by my mother is interesting.

Mệnh đề quan hệ được rút thành cụm động từ nguyên mẫu

Mệnh đề quan hệ được rút thành cụm động từ nguyên mẫu (To-infinitive) khi trước đại từ quan hệ có các cụm từ: the first, the second, the last, the only hoặc hình thức so sánh bậc nhất.

Ví dụ

John was the last person that got the news.

→ John was the last person to get the news.

He was the best player that we admire.

→   He was the best player to be admired.

He was the second man who was killed in this way.

 

→   He was the second man to be killed in this way.

 

5. Một số lưu ý khi dùng mệnh đề quan hệ 

Nếu trong mệnh đề quan hệ có giới từ thì giới từ có thể đặt trước hoặc sau mệnh đề quan hệ (chỉ áp dụng với whom và which).

Ví dụ: 

Mr. Brown is a nice teacher. We studied with him last year.

→ Mr. Brown, with whom we studied last year, is a nice teacher.

→ Mr. Brown, whom we studied with last year, is a nice teacher.

Có thể dùng which thay cho cả mệnh đề đứng trước.

Ví dụ: She can’t come to my birthday party, which makes me sad.

Ở vị trí túc từ, whom có thể được thay bằng who.

Ví dụ: I’d like to talk to the man whom / who I met at your birthday party.

Trong mệnh đề quan hệ xác định , chúng ta có thể bỏ các đại từ quan hệ làm túc từ như whom, which.

Ví dụ: 

The girl you met yesterday is my close friend.

The book you lent me was very interesting.

Các cụm từ chỉ số lượng some of, both of, all of, neither of, many of, none of … có thể được dùng trước whom, which và whose.

Ví dụ: I have two sisters, both of whom are students. She tried on three dresses, none of which fitted her.

6. SUMMARY 

Tổng quát chủ điểm ngữ pháp Mệnh đề quan hệ (Relative Clauses)

7. Bài tập thực hành mệnh đề quan hệ tiếng Anh

Bên cạnh việc hiểu lý thuyết, thực hành thường xuyên bài tập mệnh đề quan hệ (relative clauses) sẽ giúp bạn nắm vững chủ điểm ngữ pháp này hơn nữa.

Các dạng bài tập mệnh đề quan hệ thường gặp (có kèm đáp án): XEM TẠI ĐÂY.

Theo Kênh Tuyển Sinh tổng hợp