Defining Relative Clauses
A defining relative clause gives essential information about a noun — without it, the sentence doesn’t identify which one. The manager who interviewed me was very professional, The report which she submitted was excellent, The colleague whose presentation impressed everyone got the promotion. Six pronouns cover the system: who/that for people, which/that for things, whose for possession, where for places, when for times. The omission rule is the hidden third trap: the pronoun can be left out only when it functions as the object of its own clause (The report (that) she submitted) — never as the subject (The manager interviewed me is wrong without who).
This worksheet builds B1 control of defining relative clauses through combining and omission tasks in workplace and academic contexts.
Worksheet preview
What’s inside:
- Grammar Box with the full pronoun table, the no-commas rule for defining clauses, and the omission test (subject vs object pronoun)
- Combining: merge pairs of simple sentences into one with a defining relative clause
- Omission drill: decide whether the relative pronoun can be left out — and rewrite
- Gap-fill: complete sentences with the most appropriate pronoun (who, which, that, whose, where, when)
- Full Answer Key plus Teacher Notes on the quick subject-vs-object test for omission
Common mistakes addressed: commas in defining clauses (The manager, who interviewed me, was great), omitting subject pronouns (The manager interviewed me was great), and using what instead of that (The thing what she said was true).
For: Adult and teenage learners (14+) at CEFR B1, in intermediate classes, 1:1 lessons, or self-study. Defining relative clauses are heavily tested in Cambridge B1 Preliminary (PET) sentence-combining tasks. Part of the Relative Clauses collection — the natural next step is Non-Defining Relative Clauses, which adds the comma-marked extra-information variant.
