One of the earliest maxims taught in writing to “Omit needless words!” This free ESL Lesson Plan focuses on shortening relative clauses, a practical way of eliminating unnecessary words and ensuring that communication is clear and concise. The lesson provides a firm understanding of relative clauses as well as practice examples on shortening those clauses. And, to clarify, this lesson is suitable for advanced students. 

What is a Relative Clause?

A relative clause is a clause that modifies the noun or noun phrase. Take the sentence, “My dog, which has been gone for three months, finally came home.” In this case, the clause beginning “which” modifies the noun. This clause provides necessary context on the subject.

This lesson is suitable for advanced students. Therefore, we encourage teachers to ensure their students have a firm grasp of the terms: subject, object, preposition and pronoun.

Shortening Relative Clauses: The Basics

This lesson focuses on reducing subject relative clauses as well as shortening relative pronouns. An example of reducing a subject relative clause might be removing “who is” from the sentence, “the man who is standing over there.” In that example

Relative pronouns include that, which, who, whom, what, and whose.

An example might be “He doesn’t like the shirt that I bought.”

In defining relative clauses, when the relative pronoun (that) is the object of the clause (I bought) we can drop the relative pronoun.

What Comes Next?

We know teaching the English language to new learners can be tricky. Therefore, we offer a wide selection of resources, training and content to help you succeed. Our Youtube channel is packed with useful tutorials!

In conclusion, our team has done the hard work preparing a host of lessons and content for hardworking teachers. It’s time for you to download this free ESL Lesson and teach!

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