61 Omission - Relative Pronouns

Relative Pronouns are used to introduce relative clauses, they refer to people or things by replacing the subject expressed in the main clause to avoid the repetition of it in the relative clause. {see Pronouns - Relative, A1 Level}

The Relative Pronouns can be omitted when they are not the subject of the clause.

Below is a reminder of the Relative Pronouns:

• Who;
• Whom;
• Which;
• That.

• Police caught the hunter (who) my sister saw in the woods.
• Ambulance came to take the climber to (whom) I helped.
• The train (which) she was about to take was late.
• This is the terminal (that) I told you about.

When the Relative Pronoun is not the subject in a sentence, we can omit it and this does not affect the meaning. Especially in spoken English we can communicate faster and more native-like if we omit these pronouns.

We use Relative Pronouns to introduce relative clauses and they refer to people or things by replacing the subject expressed in the main clause to avoid the repetition of it in the relative clause. We can omit Relative Pronouns when they are not the subject of the clause (without affecting the structure or meaning of the sentence).

For example:
— “This is the dress (that) I bought yesterday.” = Since “that” doesn’t change the meaning or structure of the sentence, we can omit it.

Let’s revise this content within the [Form] section. Take a look at the [Example] section that shows its use within a context.