Sentence Relative Clauses (Commenting on the Whole Idea)

He passed the exam, which surprised everyone.

Notice

  • He passed the exam, which surprised everyone.
  • She arrived late again, which was typical of her.
  • The plan was cancelled at the last minute, which caused a lot of frustration.
  • They finished the project early, which impressed the client.

Rule

A sentence relative clause uses ‘which’ to comment on the entire preceding clause, not just a noun. This lets a speaker add an evaluative comment (surprise, typicality, frustration, etc.) about a whole situation — a common feature of natural, fluent spoken and written C1 English.

Practice

  1. Combine with a comment: ‘She won the award. This wasn’t a surprise to anyone.’
    Answer: She won the award, which wasn’t a surprise to anyone.
  2. Combine with a comment: ‘The train was delayed. This made us late for the meeting.’
    Answer: The train was delayed, which made us late for the meeting.
  3. Identify what ‘which’ refers to: ‘He forgot her birthday, which upset her.’
    Answer: ‘Which’ refers to the whole fact that he forgot her birthday, not just ‘birthday’.
  4. Correct the error: ‘He passed the exam, that surprised everyone.’
    Answer: He passed the exam, which surprised everyone.

Connect

Practise building sentence relative clauses that comment on a whole idea.

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CEFR: Spoken Production — formulate ideas and opinions with precision.

Azizul Hakim
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