Move the preposition to the front, count with of whom / of which, and write with the polish of a formal report.
You already build simple relative clauses: the man who called, the book that I read. At B2 the goal is control in a formal, academic register — the English of essays, presentations and school projects. Three moves make the difference: putting the preposition before whom / which, using a quantifier + of whom / of which, and handling non-defining clauses with confidence.
These structures let you pack precise information into a single, elegant sentence, without the loose feel of everyday speech. Compare the two versions below and notice how the second one sounds measured and polished.
Fix the basic pronouns first, because every advanced pattern grows from them. Whom is the object form of who, and it is the form you must use after a preposition.
| Pronoun | Refers to | Example |
|---|---|---|
| who | a person (subject) | the student who wrote the essay |
| whom | a person (object / after a preposition) | the teacher to whom we replied |
| which | a thing (and after a preposition) | the app from which it came |
| whose | possession (people or things) | the team whose captain left |
| where / when | a place / a time | the summer when we met |
In everyday English the preposition often sits at the end: the way which we did it in → usually the way we did it in. In formal writing you lift the preposition to the front, in front of whom (people) or which (things). The clause instantly sounds more academic.
| Informal (end) | Formal (front) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| the teacher I complained to | the teacher to whom I complained | bir öğretmene şikâyet ettim |
| the shop we bought it from | the shop from which we bought it | bir mağazadan aldık |
| the app he studied it with | the app with which he studied | bir uygulamayla çalıştı |
| the way she solved it in | the way in which she solved it | bir biçimde çözdü |
When you want to say something about part of a group, join the two ideas with a quantifier + of whom (people) or of which (things). This always appears in a non-defining clause, so it needs a comma before it.
| Two sentences | One clause |
|---|---|
| I have three cousins. All of them play the guitar. | I have three cousins, all of whom play the guitar. |
| He posted fifty videos. Some of them went viral. | He posted fifty videos, some of which went viral. |
| The app offered two modes. Neither of them worked. | The app offered two modes, neither of which worked. |
| We picked two captains. Both of them stayed. | We picked two captains, both of whom stayed. |
Whose replaces a possessive (his, her, its, their). Many learners think it is only for people, but it works for things and organisations too, which is very useful in formal writing.
A defining clause tells you which one — it is essential, so it takes no commas. A non-defining clause adds extra, optional information between commas. The choice changes both punctuation and the pronoun you may use.
| Defining (no commas) | Non-defining (commas) | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | identifies which one (essential) | adds extra detail (optional) |
| Example | The essay that she wrote is on my desk. | The essay, which she wrote overnight, is excellent. |
| "that"? | allowed (that / which / who) | never "that" → use which / whom |
You can often drop the relative pronoun and the verb "be", leaving just a participle. This makes writing lighter, and it is common in formal descriptions.
| Full clause | Reduced clause |
|---|---|
| the boy who is standing there | the boy standing there |
| the bridge which was built in 1890 | the bridge built in 1890 |
| the people who were invited | the people invited |
These are the errors B2 students still make with relative clauses. Check your own writing against every row.
| Wrong ✗ | Right ✓ | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| The friend to who I spoke helped me. | The friend to whom I spoke helped me. | after a preposition, use whom, not who. |
| Berlin, that I love, is a great city. | Berlin, which I love, is a great city. | no "that" in a non-defining clause. |
| a message, some which of was private | a message, some of which was private | the order is quantifier + of + which. |
| the app which the news came from it | the app from which the news came | do not keep the extra "it" / "from". |
| the student who's project won a prize | the student whose project won a prize | whose = possessive; who's = who is. |
Two students discuss entering a national school competition. Read it twice and watch the advanced structures: preposition + whom / which, quantifier + of whom, whose, and non-defining clauses set off by commas.
Choose the correct answer. — 10 questions, each one is marked instantly. Questions get harder as you go.
Learn the words, then describe someone or somewhere that has shaped you using relative clauses.
Write 8 sentences about a person, place or institution that has shaped you — a teacher, a family member, a school, a book, a city. Use at least 8 of the words above.
Sentence starters (you can begin with these):
Değerlendirme öğretmenin tarafından yapılacak. (Your teacher will review your task.)
Read the text, then answer the questions.
Good readers prepare before they start. Before you read, think about these three questions (you do not need to write the answers):
Words to spot (from the Speaking section): institution · legacy · distinguished · prominent · patron · oversee · recognition · devote
Few students at Atatürk High School realise how close the library came to disappearing. The place, whose shelves now attract readers every break, was almost turned into a storage room three years ago. The person to whom it owes its survival is Deniz Yılmaz, a determined tenth-grader whose stubborn optimism proved decisive.
To understand why her effort mattered, you have to picture the room as it once was. It was a cramped corner into which almost no one wandered, a place whose windows had been painted shut and whose shelves sagged under books that nobody borrowed. The few students for whom it still meant something were mostly quiet readers who preferred a corner and a paperback to the noise of the corridors. Most teenagers, many of whom now queue at the door every morning, walked straight past it on their way to the canteen or the sports hall. There was even a rumour, the source of which nobody could ever name, that the whole space would be handed to the caretakers for storage. For Deniz, whose weekends were spent hunting online for cheap second-hand novels, that rumour felt like a small betrayal of everyone who had ever needed somewhere calm to think.
Deniz had learned from several older students, many of whom doubted that a shabby library could ever be saved. Although the odds were against her, she gathered a team of thirty volunteers, some of whom later led the student council. The plan on which they eventually agreed was ambitious; moreover, it was expensive. Her critics wanted a few extra shelves, whereas Deniz insisted on a bright reading room in which the whole school could study.
The money, without which nothing would have happened, came from an unexpected source. A local bookshop, the owner of which had once studied at the school, offered a generous donation. The conditions to which the money was attached were strict; nevertheless, Deniz accepted them, since she had no alternative.
The art student chosen to design the room, whose earlier posters had won contests, produced a space admired to this day. However, the new shelves did not arrive on time; therefore, the opening was delayed by a term. Each of the corners, all of which follow a different theme, invites students to read in a new way. Deniz personally oversaw every stage and devoted a whole year to the endeavour.
The first weeks, during which Deniz barely slept, were the hardest of the whole project. She began with a petition, the wording of which she rewrote a dozen times until it sounded neither angry nor desperate. Classmates to whom the library had never meant anything signed it anyway, partly out of curiosity and partly because Deniz, whose enthusiasm was hard to resist, simply refused to take no for an answer. She designed posters, each of which carried a single line — 'Whose library is this, if not ours?' — and taped them to every corridor through which the students passed. Teachers, some of whom had assumed the room was already lost, began to ask her how they could help.
The thirty volunteers, without whom the plan would have collapsed, met every Saturday morning in a classroom that the head teacher lent them. They divided the work into tasks, none of which was glamorous: dusting shelves, sorting damaged books into boxes, and typing a catalogue that had never before existed. There were arguments, most of which were about colour schemes and opening hours, yet the group somehow held together. Deniz kept a notebook in which she recorded every promise made and every deadline missed, and it was this stubborn record-keeping, rather than any speech, that convinced doubters the project was real.
Not everything went smoothly, of course. There was a week during which a burst pipe soaked a shelf of donated novels, and another in which half the volunteers disappeared to revise for their exams. Deniz, whose own marks slipped that term, learned to accept help she would once have refused. A group of younger students, whom she had barely spoken to before, offered to repaint the window frames; a maths teacher whose classroom overlooked the yard lent them ladders and an old radio. Slowly, the room that everyone had written off began to look like somewhere a person might actually want to stay.
When the doors finally opened, the queue stretched past the science labs — a sight the memory of which still makes Deniz smile. Students for whom reading had always felt like a chore discovered graphic novels, poetry, and shelves of stories in the languages they were still learning. The reading corners, each of which had its own lamp and its own quiet rule, filled up within minutes. One boy, whose teachers had long complained that he never finished a book, was found an hour later on a beanbag, refusing to leave. It was exactly the scene of which Deniz had dreamed on all those sleepless nights.
Even now, students who never met Deniz repeat her rules without knowing where they came from. The habit of returning a chair to its place, the unspoken agreement about whispering, the little box in which readers leave book recommendations for strangers — all of these are things for which she was quietly responsible. A school library, it turns out, is not built once and then finished; it is a promise that each new class either keeps or breaks.
Deniz, who never sought recognition, quietly handed the library to the next class when she graduated. 'A library,' she once said, 'is not the walls within which books sit; it is the students for whom those books still matter.' Her photo now hangs by the door, yet few remember her name — a quiet legacy of which she would surely have approved.
Choose the correct answer.
Are these sentences true or false, according to the text?
Complete each sentence with ONE word from the text. Mind the relative structure (whom / which / on / of).
Write your answer in your own words. These questions are not marked automatically.
1. How did the vision of Deniz differ from that of her critics?
2. Why did Deniz accept the bookshop's strict conditions?
3. What do you think Deniz meant by saying a library is "the students for whom those books still matter"?
Find these connectors in the text — each one appears at least once: however, therefore, nevertheless, although, whereas, moreover, since, yet. (You will use these same connectors in the Writing section.) Note them down, then check.
Combine short facts into elegant relative-clause sentences, then drill the grammar with 10 quick questions.
Below are short, separate facts about a made-up student, Elif Demir. Your job is to combine them into fluent sentences using this unit's relative clauses — preposition + whom/which, quantifier + of whom/which, whose, and non-defining clauses.
Sentence starters (you can begin with these):
Değerlendirme öğretmenin tarafından yapılacak. (Your teacher will review your task.)
10 quick questions on advanced relative clauses. Each one is marked instantly. Questions get harder as you go.
Write and submit your paragraph; your teacher will review it.
At B1 you linked ideas with and, but, so, because. At B2 you sound noticeably more advanced when you use formal, precise connectors. Combine these with the relative clauses of this unit and your writing will read like a polished profile.
| Connector | Use it to... | Example |
|---|---|---|
| moreover | add a stronger, extra point | She was a fine teacher. Moreover, she was a patron of the arts. |
| therefore | show a logical result | No one would help; therefore, she did it herself. |
| whereas | contrast two ideas directly | Others sought fame, whereas she sought no recognition. |
| nevertheless | say "in spite of that" | The task was huge. Nevertheless, she persevered. |
| although | concede a point inside one sentence | Although she avoided the spotlight, her legacy is famous. |
| however | contrast between two sentences | I admire many people. However, one stands out. |
See the difference — the same facts, written two ways:
| Basic linking ✗ | Confident B2 writing ✓ |
|---|---|
| My grandmother was a teacher. She taught many students. They still respect her. She never wanted fame. I admire her. | My grandmother, whose patience I still remember, taught hundreds of students, many of whom still respect her. Although she never sought fame, her influence was enormous; therefore, she is the person to whom I owe the most. |
A "portrait of influence" paragraph has three parts. The skeleton stays the same — you change the content, not the structure:
| Part | What to write | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Opening | Introduce the person or institution with a non-defining clause | The person to whom I owe the most is my old physics teacher, whose passion was contagious. |
| 2. Body | Explain the influence. Use preposition + whom/which, quantifier + of whom/which and whose, linked with B2 connectors. | He gave us projects, most of which seemed impossible; nevertheless, we finished them. |
| 3. Closing | A final comment about the lasting effect or legacy | It is a legacy for which I remain deeply grateful. |
Write about a person, place or institution that has shaped you, your studies or your community. Describe the influence, not just the facts. Use the relative clauses of this unit.
Değerlendirme öğretmenin tarafından yapılacak. (Your teacher will evaluate your writing.)
Mixed questions from the whole unit, then check what you can do.
14 questions: grammar + vocabulary + reading. Each question is marked instantly.
Tick what you can do now. Honest answers help your teacher.
İşaretlemediğin madde varsa ilgili bölüme dönüp tekrar çalış — soldaki menüden her bölüme geri dönebilirsin.
Oturum kontrol ediliyor...