Omitting relative pronouns

## Level and focus

**Level:** B1  
**Category:** Relative clauses

Omit who, which or that when the relative pronoun is the object of a defining relative clause.

By the end of this lesson, learners should be able to: **Decide when a relative pronoun can be omitted without changing meaning or grammar.**

## Core idea

This lesson adds a recommended grammar point that improves the coverage of the curriculum without changing the overall CEFR progression. Learners should first recognise the pattern, then practise controlled examples, and only later combine it with adjacent grammar.

## Form

- `can omit object relative pronoun: The book I bought`

• cannot omit subject relative pronoun: The man who called

• only in defining relative clauses

• do not omit in non-defining clauses

  Meaning and use

  Use this grammar when the speaker needs the meaning described in the lesson goal. The examples should stay close to the level and should not rely on advanced vocabulary or several new grammar points at once.

  Examples

  • The film that we watched was excellent.

• The film we watched was excellent.

• The woman who lives next door is a doctor.

• The car I rented was very small.

  Common mistakes

  • Omitting a subject relative pronoun: not The man lives next door is kind; use The man who lives next door is kind.

• Omitting in non-defining relatives: not My brother, lives in Madrid, is a teacher; use My brother, who lives in Madrid, is a teacher.

• Removing too much information: not The book bought yesterday is good; use The book I bought yesterday is good.

  Teaching sequence

  1. Start with a clear contrast between two forms or meanings.
  2. Give short controlled examples with familiar vocabulary.
  3. Include one item that targets a common mistake.
  4. Add mixed review items that distinguish this point from a neighbouring lesson.
  5. End with simple sentence-level production or recognition.

  Boundary: what not to cover here

  Keep this as an extension of defining relatives. Non-defining relatives and reduced relatives are later topics.

  Suggested practice

  For the current exercise system, use 25 multiple-choice exercises. Include clear distractors that test the target grammar, not obscure vocabulary. Later, this lesson can be expanded with gap-fill, error-correction or transformation tasks.

Quick check

Before you move on, can you explain the rule in one sentence and make one example of your own?