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Topic:
Adjective Clauses
Adjective
clause? Santa Claus? Aren’t they the same?
Well. Um.
No, they aren’t the same.
Let’s begin with Santa Claus.
He’s the chubby old man that lives at the North Pole.
Now, let’s talk about adjective clauses.
Adjective
clauses are adjectives. However,
they look like sentences because they have verbs and nouns.
Take a look at the following sentences with adjectives.
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I
love my new watch.
George
gave me a leather wallet.
Elvis
Presley was a famous singer.
She
just bought a blue car.
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All
of the words in red are adjectives.
They are describing the nouns (the words in blue).
Here
are some more examples:
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I
just bought the you recommended book.
Frank
is the taught me how to cook chef.
Snowmobiles
are you can ride on the snow cars.
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Notice
that these adjectives have verbs (recommended, taught, and ride).
In fact, these adjectives look like small sentences!
In some languages, this grammar is correct.
In English, however, the above 3 sentences are INCORRECT!
The problem is that when the adjective has a verb (and looks like a
small sentence), it canNOT be before the noun.
When the adjective has a verb (like the above examples), they are
placed AFTER the noun. In
addition, these types of adjectives are called adjective clauses.
As
we said above, adjective clauses are adjectives, but they look like
sentences because they have verbs and nouns. Because they look like
sentences, put the adjective clause after the noun.
Like these:
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I
just bought the book
you recommended.
Frank
is the chef
taught me how to cook.
Snowmobiles
are cars you
can ride on the snow.
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THERE
IS STILL A PROBLEM. When you
use adjective clauses, you often need a word that connects the noun with
the adjective clause. The
word acts like glue and keeps the noun and the adjective clause together. This word is called the relative pronoun.
For our purposes, let’s call it the RP (relative pronoun).
So,
here are the rules:
| If
the NOUN
is a |
|
then
the RP
is |
| person |
>> |
who or that |
| thing |
>> |
which or that |
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Using these rules, we get:
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I
just bought the book
which you
recommended.
-OR-
I
just bought the book
that you
recommended.
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Frank
is the chef who
taught me how to cook.
-OR-
Frank
is the chef that
taught me how to cook.
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Snowmobiles
are cars which
you can ride on the snow.
-OR-
Snowmobiles
are cars that
you can ride on the snow.
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Who,
which, and that are just three RPs. There
are more RPs (whom, whose), but they will be discussed in a later lesson.
Sometimes,
you don’t need the RP. A
good rule to remember: If the
word after the RP is a verb, you must have the RP there.
If the word after the RP is not a verb, you probably don’t need
it.
Example:
I just bought the book that you
recommended.
The
word after the RP is you. You
is not a verb. Therefore, the
following sentence is also correct.
I just bought the book you
recommended.
When
the noun is a proper name (and begins with a capital letter), do NOT use that.
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CORRECT
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Winston Churchill, who was the prime minister of England, is
considered one of the greatest leaders of the 20th Century. |
| INCORRECT |
Winston
Churchill, that was the prime minister of England, is considered
one of the greatest leaders of the 20th Century. |
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Some adjective clauses are necessary in the sentence; some adjective
clauses are not necessary, but they are used just to give extra information. When
the adjective clause is NOT necessary, use commas.
When the adjective clause IS necessary, don’t use commas.
Example:
Wine
that is made in southern Italy is very expensive.
Here,
the adjective clause (that
is made in southern Italy)
is necessary because if you take it out, the meaning of the sentence
completely changes. Take a look:
Wine
is very expensive.
You
can see that the first sentence is specifically saying that wine from
southern Italy is expensive. However, when you take out the
adjective clause, the meaning becomes ALL wine is expensive. The
meaning of these two sentences is very different. The difference is
completely dependent on the adjective clause. Therefore, the
adjective clause is NECESSARY. As a result, do not use commas.
In
addition, when the adjective clause is not necessary at all (it just adds
extra information), that is
usually not used.
| CORRECT |
The
president of the company, who is a Harvard graduate,
plans on retiring at the end of the month. |
| INCORRECT |
The
president of the company, that is a Harvard graduate,
plans on retiring at the end of the month. |
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Lastly,
do not include the noun or use a pronoun that refers to the noun you are
describing.
Example:
The
concert was loud. I went to it.
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CORRECT |
The
concert that I went to was loud. |
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INCORRECT |
The
concert that I went to it was loud. |
The noun being described is concert.
It refers to concert.
Therefore, it is not used in the
adjective clause (I went to).
Quiz Time
Directions: Put the two sentences together to
create one sentence by making an adjective
clause. Note: There may be more than one
answer.
1. I love movies. Movies are
exciting.
2. Do you have a dog? The dog is large
with white fur.
3. She is the lady. The lady helped me
find the magazine I was looking for.
4. Mount Everest is very dangerous to
climb. Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world.
5. Cars are very efficient. The cars run
on electricity.
6. Dr. Jones writes books. Dr. Jones is a
retired university professor.
7. This is the ring. My mother gave me
the ring for my wedding.
8. New York's Long Island has a booming real estate
market. Long Island is shaped like a fish.
9. The manager is from Brazil. She is in
my office.
10. The music is rock and roll. I listen to
the music.
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