Relative Clauses Answer Key
About This Worksheet
This Grade 7 Language Arts worksheet helps students combine two short sentences by using a relative pronoun. Relative pronouns such as who, whom, whose, which, and that begin clauses that add more information about a noun. Students decide which pronoun fits the meaning and whether commas are needed. For example, “The chef won a national award. He trained in Italy” can become “The chef, who trained in Italy, won a national award.”
Learning Goals
The main goal is to help students create smoother sentences by turning repeated information into a relative clause. Students should already understand that a relative pronoun refers back to an antecedent. This activity moves them toward choosing a pronoun based on whether the antecedent is a person, object, place, or possessive relationship. It also introduces the difference between restrictive clauses, which are needed to identify the noun, and nonrestrictive clauses, which add extra information. The worksheet supports CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.1 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.2 through sentence combining, pronoun use, and comma placement.
Student Tasks
On this worksheet, students will combine ten pairs of sentences into one complete sentence. They must use an appropriate relative pronoun and keep all of the original information. The examples involve chefs, novels, neighbors, skateboards, museums, singers, trails, student leaders, tablets, and documentaries. After combining each pair, students complete a bonus challenge by labeling the relative clause as restrictive or nonrestrictive.
Common Challenges
Some students may use who or that automatically without checking what kind of noun the clause describes. Others may add commas around every relative clause, even when the information is necessary to identify the noun. Students may also repeat the antecedent inside the clause, creating a sentence such as “The novel that the novel has a blue cover.” Encourage them to remove the repeated noun and let the relative pronoun take its place.
Teaching Suggestions
A teacher can begin with two nearly identical examples: “The student who won the contest received a prize” and “Maya, who won the contest, received a prize.” The first clause helps identify which student, while the second adds extra information about a named person. At home, a parent can ask whether the sentence still points to the same specific person or object when the clause is removed. That simple test helps students decide whether commas belong around it.
Worksheet Features
The page includes ten sentence-combining problems with a useful mix of people, objects, places, and possessive relationships. Directions remind students not to add commas when a clause is restrictive. The final labeling challenge adds a deeper grammar step after the sentence construction is complete. This worksheet works well for relative pronoun practice, sentence fluency, punctuation review, or an editing lesson.