CSG255

Unit 20

Relative Pronouns

Reviewing a few points of grammar will help you understand the role played by relative pronouns (los pronombres relativos) in everyday communication. A relative pronoun always refers back to its antecedent, a noun or a pronoun previously mentioned in a sen-tence. In other words, relative pronouns serve as links or connec-tors between sentences or clauses. That, those, which, who, whom, and whose are used to introduce relative clauses in Engiish.

Juan es el profesor que    Juan is the professor who

ensena filosofia.    teaches philosophy.

Antecedent means previous or prior. The antecedent in the above example, el profesor, is immediately followed by que, a relative pronoun that introduces a relative clause (que ensena filosofia). Re łatwe clauses are always subordinate (dependent) clauses.

Velazquez es el autor de    Veldzquez is the creator of

“Las Meninas”, el cual es Las Meninas, which is mi cuadro favorito.    my fcworite painting.

The main (independent) clause in this case, Velazquez es el autor de “Las Meninas”, makes complete sense; it stands on its own. The subordinate clause, el cual es mi cuadro favorito, embellishes the sentence; it adds meaning to the main sentence, but cannot stand on its own. This type of clause is called nonre.stńctive because it does not act upon or limit the content of the main clause.

However, in other sentences, the information in a dependent clause is necessary to understand the main clause. In this case, it is called a restńctive clause, because its presence limits the content of the main clause.

Las manzanas que estan    The apples that are rotten are

podridas no son    not healtky. (Rotten apples

saludables.    are not healthy.)

Apples are considered a healthy fruit. If we take out the relative clause, que estan podridas, the utterance would not make much sense.

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