3. Paco frequently plays tennis, which is good for his health

Icono de iDevice Reflexión
By Lycaon. GNU Free Documentation License

Have a look at the following sentence from the passage in the previous section.

  • Because of its geographic remoteness very few foreign players entered this tournament at the beginning, which made it an uninteresting tournament.

Now, read this one which seems similar.

  • At the beginning, because of its geographic remoteness very few foreign players entered the tournament which was held in Australia.
What is the difference between them?
Icono IDevice Important

Sentential relative clauses

These relative clauses are known as sentential relative clauses. If you pay special attention to the example above,

  • They are placed after the sentence they refer to.
  • They are usually placed between commas (but they have nothing to do with non-defining relative clauses).
  • They are always introduced by WHICH.

E.g.: Paco frequently plays tennis, which is good for his health.

Icono IDevice Further knowledge

As you can see, these relative clauses are quite easy and simple.

Click here in order to do an exercise in which there are all kinds of relative clauses, including sentential relative clauses. And by clicking here, you will be able to complete another interesting exercise dealing with this subject.


Icono de IDevice de pregunta Self-Assessment activity

Which of the following relative sentences are sentential?

1.

  

a. Andrés didn't arrive on time to the game, which upset Paco.

b. Andrés didn't arrive on time to the game which was going to play with Paco.


2.

  

a. Paco is buying a lot of presents, which he will give his relatives.

b. Paco is buying a lot of presents, which makes him feel good.


3.

  

a. One of Paco's friends smokes a lot of cigarettes, which he always buys in the same tobacconist's.

b. One of Paco's friends smokes a lot of cigarettes, which is really unhealthy.


Icono IDevice Writing activity
By Olivander. C. Commons
What's your opinion?

It is common that you are asked to give your opinion on different subjects. It is very important that you carefully think about what your opinion is and the reasons why this is so before beginning to write.


Answer the following question in no less than 80 words and send it to your tutor.

Do you think doing sports helps people be healthy?



Well, this is the end of topic 3. In it we have studied non-defining relative clauses as well as sentential relative clauses. In topic 4, some specific English structures are studied. See you in topic 4.

But before leaving don't forget to 'Practice your English'.