1. The video which made Paco visit Australia

Icono de iDevice AV - Reflexión

 

Have a look at the following two sentences from the passage in the previous section:

1. Paco is ready to visit Sydney, which is the largest city in Australia.

2. He thinks this is a place which he wanted to visit.

What difference can you see between them?

There are two types of relative clauses: defining and non-defining.

Defining relative clauses are necessary to understand the meaning of the main clause. In sentence 2 above, if the speaker hadn't added the relative clause, the main clause ("He thinks this is a place") wouldn't have made any sense at all as a whole. Defining relative clauses are not placed between commas. Their corresponding Spanish relative clauses are known as "oraciones subordinadas adjetivas o de relativo especificativas".

Non-defining relative clauses are not necessary to understand the meaning of the main clause. In sentence 1 above, if the speaker hadn't added the relative clause, the main clause ("Paco is ready to visit Sydney") would have made perfect sense as a whole. Non-defining relative clauses are always placed between commas. Their corresponding Spanish relative clauses are known as "oraciones subordinadas adjetivas o de relativo explicativas".

Icono IDevice Further knowledge
If you want to read more information about defining and non-defining relative clauses, click here. And click here to get a file which also gives general and excellent information on the subject.

Icono de iDevice Solved exercise

Let's take some other sentences from the passage in the previous section which contain a subordinate relative clause:

1. It (the first colony) was established in 1788 at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip, who was a commodore of the so well known First Fleet.

2. The metropolitan area is surrounded by national parks, where the tourists spend many hours enjoying nature.

3. By 1954, Goossens succeeded in gaining the support of NSW Premier Joseph Cahill, who called for designs for a dedicated opera house.

4. It was also Goossens who insisted that Bennelong Point be the site for the Opera House.

5. The winner, who was announced in 1957, was Jørn Utzon, a Danish architect.

Which relative clauses are defining and which ones are non-defining? Can you identify the relative pronouns? And the antecedents?


Icono IDevice Listening activity

One of the reasons Paco wanted to visit Australia is that he had seen a really beautiful video about the country. Undoubtedly, this video made him decide to visit Australia as soon as he could. Now, he is here.

 

 
 
 

Can you identify a relative clause in the video. Is it a defining or non-defining relative clause?



Icono de IDevice de pregunta Self-Assessment activity

Are the subordinate relative clauses within these sentences defining or non-defining?


By Mfield. GNU Free Documentation License

1. Andrés, who is one of Paco's best friends, is not studying History.

  
a. Defining.
b. Non-defining.

2. El Príncipe is the park where Paco and Andrés first met.
  
a. Defining
b. Non-defining.

3. The name of the architect who designed the Opera House was Jørn Utzon.
  
a. Defining.
b. Non-defining

Now, we know the main differences between defining and non-defining relative clauses. In the following section we will study the former in depth.

« Anterior | Siguiente »