Writing Better English for ESL Learners

The officer that saw him speeding gave him a ticket.

or

The officer that gave him a ticket saw him speeding.

Notice that commas are not used with that. Look at a few more examples:

I like the girl.The girllives down that street.

I like the girl who lives down that street.

or

I like the girl that lives down that street.

He said a word. I don’t understand a word.

He said a word, which I don’t understand.

or

He said a word that I don’t understand.

Where’s the car? You bought the car.

Where’s the car that you bought?

or

Where’s the car you bought?

Let’s take a closer look at relative pronouns and the clauses they form.

English forms relative clauses in four ways:

1. With the relative pronoun whoor whom, when referring to people.
   Whois used as the subject of a sentence. Whomis used in all other
   cases. Whosereplaces a possessive adjective (my, his, our, et cetera).


2. With the relative pronoun thatwhen referring to people or things.


3. With the relative pronoun whichwhen referring to things.

52 Writing Better English