Teacher Discussion Forums

Let's bring the Rome and small shop sentences into better alignment. Perhaps we can say: Rome is a city, which has lots of ancient buildings. (or, alternatively: They own a small shop, where you can buy perfume .) Does the Rome sentence still "fail on the truth proviso"? Yes. Why? Because a city is ...

Not sure that I'm following. Could you answer this question - Do you think that sentences such as: Rome is a city, where you can see lots of ancient buildings. and They own a small shop, which sells perfume. make any sense? (To my ears, they're impossible.) In He went to the cafe, where they serve a...

Hi, thethinker. I've run into this same problem when talking about non-/defining relative clauses with my students. I think you're right in saying that the indefinite article changes the function played by the relative clause. Here's my take on the issue: When you use "a" with a non-defining relativ...