2.1. Paco is wearing a coat he bought for this place

Icono de iDevice Reflexión

Sometimes the relative pronoun can be omitted. Let's study the following sentences.

This is the man who loves me.

This is the man who I love.

Can the relative pronoun be omitted in any of these examples?

Icono de iDevice Solved exercise

As we have just seen above, the relative pronoun can sometimes be omitted. How do we know this? The answer is easy. We have to look at the relative pronoun and ask:

Is it the subject or the object of the relative clause?

  • In the example 'This is the man who loves me', 'who' is the subject of the relative clause 'who loves me'.
  • In the second example, 'This is the man who I love', 'who' is the object of the relative clause 'who I love' (the subject is 'I', and 'who' is the object). In these cases, the relative clause can be omitted and, in fact, it sounds better when it is omitted.

This is the man I love.

Can the relative pronoun be omitted in the following sentences?

1. This is the mobile phone which I bought yesterday.

2. The man who stole my car was arrested yesterday.

3. I bought the book which you had recommended to me.


Self-Assessment activity
Decide if the relative pronoun in each of these sentences can be omitted (true) or not (false):


1. The computer which I bought a month ago doesn't work.


Verdadero Falso


2. The man who sold you the house got married last Saturday.

Verdadero Falso


3. The customer who I talked to yesterday was very nice.

Verdadero Falso


4. The number that you gave me was wrong.

Verdadero Falso


5. The new lamp which is in your room is nice.

Verdadero Falso
Icono IDevice Further knowledge

Have further practice of subject and object pronouns by doing these exercises:

Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3

 


Self-Assessment activity

Let's do a listening activity! Discover more about the north of Canada by having a look at this video. Then decide if the statements below are true or false. It's easy!



1. The stereotypical image of Canada is one of igloos, dog sleds and snowmobiles.

Verdadero Falso


2. Nunavut is between Yukon and the North West Territories.

Verdadero Falso


3. There are not many mountains, lakes and rivers in the north of Canada.

Verdadero Falso


4. There are gold miners in these places.

Verdadero Falso


5. According to the speaker, Canada is the best experience in life.

Verdadero Falso


6. Canada is like what the rest of the world was like in the past.

Verdadero Falso
Let's do something different in the next section: compound nouns.
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