Chapter 9 — Relative clauses and clause connectors

The essentials in four points:

• Restrictive relative (no commas): who / which / that; non-restrictive (between commas): which or who, never that.
• After a noun like fact, idea, belief, the clause is introduced by that: the fact that the manuscript survived…
• The reason why, the place where, the time when — the connector matches the antecedent.

This chapter links two very profitable question families: choosing the right relative pronoun and choosing the connector that introduces a clause after a noun (the fact that…) or without an antecedent (Whatever the committee decides…).

1. That vs which. Restrictive relative (no comma): that or which. Non-restrictive relative (between commas): which only — that is excluded after a comma.
✔ The volcano, which last erupted in 1707, is monitored.

2. What never takes an antecedent. What = “that which”: it contains its own antecedent. After a noun, use that/which.
✘ The theory what Darwin proposed → ✔ The theory that Darwin proposed
✔ What Darwin proposed revolutionized biology.

3. The noun complement clause. the fact / the idea / the belief / evidence that + clause — never “of that”. And the reason why, the place where, the time when.

4. No doubled preposition. Where already contains “in which”: the city where I was born in → where I was born or which I was born in.