Relative clauses: king cobra
The Grammar Bit!
Read the three sentences opposite. They each contain a relative clause (bold). A relative clause gives the reader extra information about the preceding noun.
In a relative clause, this extra piece of information is introduced by a relative pronoun (underlined). There are 5 basic relative pronouns: who, which, that, whose and whom.
It is important to note the following:
who – is used when referring to a person
which – is used when referring to a place, animal or thing
that – can refer to a person, place, animal or thing
With your talk partner, read each sentence with and then without the relative clause. What do you notice?
Scintillating Sentences
1) The king cobra, which is the world’s largest venomous snake, can reach almost six metres in length.
2) The snake handler, who was an expert in catching dangerous serpents, removed the cobra from the garden.
3) The young girl was understandably cautious of the king cobra, whose venom was powerful enough to kill an elephant.
“The best thing about me is my poisonality. Now that’s hissterical!”