9.10.1 Defining relative clauses

In the sentence:

The woman who lives in that house is French.
(La dona que viu en aquella casa és francesa.)

The basic sentence is:

The woman is French.
(La dona és francesa.)

And in order to specify the woman, we include the relative clause "who lives in that house". Who is the relative word; it refers to a person ("the woman") and it is the subject of the verb "lives".

In the sentence:

I liked the film that we saw last week.
(Em va agradar la pel·lícula que vam veure la setmana passada.)

The basic sentence is:

I liked the film.
(Em va agradar la pel·lícula.)

And in order to specify the film, we include the relative clause "that we saw last week". That is the relative word; it refers to a thing ("the film") and it is the object of the verb "saw".

There are different relative words for different situations:

	Subject of the verb	Object of the verb or preposition	Possessive
Refers to a person	1 who	2 who, that, whom, Ø ¹	5 whose
Refers to a thing	3 that, which	4 that, which, Ø ¹

¹ Ø means that no relative word is one possibility.

Examples of 1 (relative clause in blue; relative word in bold):

The girls who came enjoyed the show.
(Les noies que van venir gaudien de l'espectacle.)

Do you know the boywho's playing the drums?
(Coneixes el noi que toca la bateria?)

Examples of 2 (relative clause inblue; relative word inbold):

Example	*Catalan*
The children who I saw were from Scotland.	Els nens que vaig veure eren d'Escòcia.
The children that I saw were from Scotland.
The children whom I saw were from Scotland.
The children I saw were from Scotland.

Example	*Catalan*
The man who I spoke to was very helpful.	L'home amb qui vaig parlar m'ajudava molt.
The man that I spoke to was very helpful.
The manI spoke to was very helpful.

Whom is formal; when it is the object of a preposition, we prefer to place the preposition with whom, for example:

The man to whom I spoke was very helpful.
(L'home amb qui vaig parlar m'ajudava molt.)

Examples of 3 (relative clause inblue; relative word inbold):

Example	*Catalan*
The building that collapsed was very old.	L'edifici que va col·lapsar era molt vell.
The building which collapsed was very old.	L'edifici que va col·lapsar era molt vell.

Examples of 4 (relative clause inblue; relative word inbold):

Example	*Catalan*
I like the pictures that she paints.	M'agraden els quadres que pinta.
I like the pictures which she paints.
I like the picturesshe paints.
I found the ring that I was looking for.	Vaig trobar l'anell que buscava.
I found the ring which I was looking for.
I found the ringI was looking for.

Examples of 5 (relative clause inblue; relative word inbold):

I spoke to the woman whose daughter won first prize.
(Vaig parlar amb la dona la filla de la qual va guanyar el primer premi.)

The young man whose picture was in the papers came into the shop.
(El jove que tenia la seva foto als diaris va entrar a la botiga.)

When the relative refers to a day or other period of time, you will sometimes see the relative word when, e.g.:

Example	*Catalan*
The day when they came was very cold.	El dia que van venir feia molt de fred.
The day that they came was very cold.
The daythey came was very cold.

Where is also a relative word; it corresponds to a preposition phrase, not a noun phrase. Consider, for example, these sentences:

Example	*Catalan*
This is the house that Shakespeare lived in.	Aquesta és la casa on vivia Shakespeare.
This is the house where Shakespeare lived.	Aquesta és la casa on vivia Shakespeare.

In the first sentence, that refers to "the house", so we need the preposition in, but in the second sentence, where refers to "in that house", so there is no preposition.

Consequently, the following two sentences are wrong:

~~This is the house that Shakespeare lived~~.

~~This is the house where Shakespeare lived in~~.

As distinct from Catalan, English does not have a subjunctive verb form in relative clauses like the following, e.g.:

We need someone who speaks Chinese.
(Necessitem algú que parli xinès.)

I'm looking for a hat that matches this dress.
(Busco un barret que faci joc amb aquest vestit.)