Surely you don’t intend to live by yourself like she does?
Joyce looked at her the way a lot of girls did.
If you want to make a strong comparison, you use just as.
You can think of him and feel proud, just as I do.
If you want to make a fairly weak comparison, you use much as.
These tanks speed across the desert, much as they did in World War II.
8.81 You sometimes want to say that something is done in the way that it would be done if something were the case. You do this by using as if or as though. You use a past tense in the clause of manner.
He holds his head forward as if he has hit it too often on low doorways.
Presidents can’t dispose of companies as if people didn’t exist.
I put some water on my clothes to make it look as though I had been sweating.
He behaved as though it was nothing to be ashamed of.
You also use as if or as though after linking verbs such as feel or look. You do this when you are comparing someone’s feelings or appearance to the feelings or appearance they would have if something were the case.
She felt as if she had a fever.
His hair looked as if it had been combed with his fingers.
Her pink dress and her frilly umbrella made her look as though she had come to a garden party.
In formal English, were is sometimes used instead of was in clauses beginning with as if or as though.
She shook as if she were crying, but she made no sound.
I felt as if I were the centre of the universe.
You talk as though he were already dead.
You can use just in front of as if or as though for emphasis.
He shouldn’t have left her alone, just as if she was someone of no importance at all.
8.82 You can also use as if and as though in clauses that begin with a to-infinitive or a participle.
For a few moments, he sat as if stunned.
He ran off to the house as if escaping.
He shook his head as though dazzled by his own vision.
You can also use as if and as though in front of adjectives and prepositional phrases.
One must row steadily onwards as if intent on one’s own business.
He shivered as though with cold.
Relative clauses
8.83 When you mention someone or something in a sentence, you often want to give further information about them. One way to do this is to use a relative clause.
You put a relative clause immediately after the noun that refers to the person, thing, or group you are talking about.
The man who came into the room was small and slender.
Opposite is St. Paul’s Church, where you can hear some lovely music.
Relative clauses have a similar function to adjectives, and they are sometimes called adjectival clauses.
Nominal relative clauses, which have a similar function to noun phrases, are explained in paragraphs 8.112 to 8.116.
relative pronouns
8.84 Many relative clauses begin with a relative pronoun. The relative pronoun usually acts as the subject or object of the verb in the relative clause.
He is the only person who might be able to help.
Most of them have a job, which they take both for the money and the company.
Here is a list of the most common relative pronouns:
that
which
who
whom
whose
Relative pronouns do not have masculine, feminine, or plural forms. The same pronoun can be used to refer to a man, a woman, or a group of people.
She didn’t recognize the man who had spoken.
I met a girl who knew Mrs Townsend.
There are many people who find this intolerable.
Some relative clauses do not have a relative pronoun.
Nearly all the people I used to know have gone.
This is explained in paragraphs 8.90, 8.91, and 8.96.
types of relative clause
8.85 There are two types of relative clause.
Some relative clauses explain which person or thing you are talking about. For example, if you say I met the woman, it might not be clear who you mean, so you might say, I met the woman who lives next door. In this sentence, who lives next door is called a defining relative clause.
Shortly after the shooting, the man who had done it was arrested.
Mooresville is the town that John Dillinger came from.
Other relative clauses give further information that is not needed to identify the person, thing, or group you are talking about. For example, if you say I saw Miley Cyrus, it is clear who you mean. But you might want to add more information about Miley Cyrus, so you might say, for example, I saw Miley Cyrus, who was staying at the hotel opposite. In this sentence, who was staying at the hotel opposite is called a non-defining relative clause.
He was waving to the girl, who was running along the platform.
He walked down to Broadway, the main street of the town, which ran parallel to the river.
This type of relative clause is used mainly in writing rather than speech.
Note that you cannot begin a non-defining relative clause with that.
punctuation
8.86 A relative clause that simply gives extra information usually has a comma in front of it and a comma after it, unless it is at the end of a sentence, in which case you just put a full stop. Dashes are sometimes used instead of commas.
My son, who is four, loves Spiderman.
You never put a comma or a dash in front of a defining relative clause.
The woman who owns this cabin will come back in the autumn.
use after pronouns
8.87 Relative clauses that distinguish one noun from all others can be used after some pronouns.
They are used after indefinite pronouns such as someone, anyone, and everything.