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Use defining relative clauses to identify exactly which person, thing or place you mean, without commas around the essential information.
Overview
Use defining relative clauses to identify exactly which person, thing or place you mean, without commas around the essential information.
Form and rules
Use who for people: the woman who works here.
Use which for things and animals: the phone which I bought.
That can replace who or which in many defining relative clauses.
Use where for places: the café where we met.
You can often omit who/which/that when it is the object: the film (that) we watched. Do not omit it when it is the subject: the man who called.
A closer look
Use where for places: the café where we met.
You can often omit who/which/that when it is the object: the film (that) we watched. Do not omit it when it is the subject: the man who called.
Examples
The man who called is my uncle.
This is the book that I told you about.
That's the restaurant where we had dinner.
The film we watched was excellent.
I need a phone which has a good camera.
Common mistakes
Who refers to a person and is the subject of lives.
Where refers to the place where an action happened.
Ready to practise?
The test combines multiple choice, gap completion, error correction, and sentence building so students have to recognise and produce the grammar, not simply reread the rule.