|
1. Adjective Clauses Adjective clauses are also called relative clauses. They come after nouns and modify them. In other words, they tell the listener or reader more about the person or thing that the noun refer to. The pronouns that often begin adjective clauses are called relative pronouns ( that, which, who, whom, whose, where) For example: A person who sweeps the floor on buildings is known as janitor. A person who sails is a sailor. The man who sold the red house is a friend of mine. 2. Reducing Adjective Clauses to Adjective Phrases If the subject relative pronoun is followed by the verb be in any tense, both the relative pronoun and the verb be can be omitted. For example: The realtor who is selling the house is Ann.--> The realtor The garment that is worn by priests is usually white.-> The garment 3. Relative pronouns as objects The object relative pronouns for people are who, whom, that. Whom is more formal than who. The object relative pronouns for things are which, that. For example: The candidate who more votes gets become the president. The first time that I voted was in 1982. You may omit the relative pronoun in restricted adjective clauses. For example: The first time I voted was in 1982. 4. Restricted/Nonrestricted Relative Clauses The two main types of adjective clauses--restrictive and nonrestrictive-- have distinct meanings and uses. A restrictive adjective clause gives information that helps to uniquely identify the noun that it describes. For example: My sister who attends KU is very shy. (I have two sisters. one attends KU , the other doesn't) A Nonrestrictive adjective clause, on the other hand, adds extra information about the noun it modifies. This information is not necessary to identify the noun. For example: Mary, who attends KU, is very shy. Summary
|
| NetGrammar | |