English Grammar Drills - Mark Lester 2009
Adjective (relative) clauses
4 Post-Noun Modifiers
Part 1 Noun Phrases
Adjective clauses (also known as relative clauses) have their own internal subject-verb agreement structure (like independent clauses), but unlike independent clauses, adjectives clauses can never stand alone as independent sentences. Adjective clauses are thus a type of dependent clause.
Adjective clauses are always attached to the nouns that they modify. Here are some examples with the noun being modified underlined and the adjective clause in italics:
The book that I need is not in the library.
I answered all of the questions that I could.
The editorial, which had appeared in the Times, was the talk of the town.
The man who introduced the speaker is the vice-president of the society.
Alice Johnson, who is the head of personnel, will be at the interview.
The students whom I was talking about earlier are all in their first year here.
We interviewed the parents whose children participated in the study.
Did you find a place where we can park overnight?
We need to pick a time when we can all meet.
We can always identify adjective clauses by the third-person pronoun replacement test.
Adjective clauses are the only type of dependent clause that will be inside the boundaries of the third-person pronoun substitution. Here is the third-person pronoun test applied to all of the above examples of adjective clauses:
The book that I need is not in the library.
It is not in the library.
I answered all of the questions that I could.
I answered all of them.
The editorial, which had appeared in the Times, was the talk of the town.
It was the talk of the town.
The man who introduced the speaker is the vice-president of the society.
He is the vice-president of the society.
Alice Johnson, who is the head of personnel, will be at the interview.
She will be at the interview.
The students whom I was talking about earlier are all in their first year here.
They are all in their first year here.
We interviewed the parents whose children participated in the study.
We interviewed them.
Did you find a place where we can park overnight?
Did you find it?
We need to pick a time when we can all meet.
We need to pick it.
Exercise 4.4
Underline the adjective clauses in the following sentences. Confirm your answer by using the third-person pronoun replacement test.
The opera that we saw was sung in Russian.
It was sung in Russian.
1. We are going to refinance the mortgage that we have on our house.
2. Most of the staff who work at my office will be attending the office party.
3. The place where the pipe connects to the water line is badly corroded.
4. We talked to the subjects whom we had previously identified.
5. Ralph, whom you met on your last trip here, will take you around.
6. They examined the building where the meetings would be held.
7. That week was a period when everything seemed to go wrong.
8. They asked us to redo the tests that we had done earlier.
9. It was a memorial to the pioneers who first settled this area.
10. We took them to the laboratory, which is in the basement.
11. They took pictures of the river where the bridge had washed out.
12. I didn’t know the person whom they were discussing.
13. We had an adventure that we certainly had not planned on.
14. My parents, who live in a small town, always enjoy visiting the city.
15. The manager, whom we had contacted earlier, approved our check.
16. Some fans whose enthusiasm knew no limits climbed up on stage.
17. Berlin, which had been a divided city, is now open to everyone.
18. Our friends went to a museum where there was free admission on Mondays.
19. That was the moment when I knew we were in big trouble.
20. The yogurt, which had been in our refrigerator for months, had to be thrown out.
The internal structure of adjective clauses
Virtually all languages have adjective clauses. The internal structure of adjective clauses in English, however, is unusually complicated. All adjective clauses must begin with a special pronoun called a relative pronoun. (The term relative pronoun refers to the fact that these pronouns are used only in forming relative clauses.) The choice of which relative pronoun to use is governed by two factors: (1) the role of the relative pronoun inside its own adjective clause (i.e., whether the relative pronoun is a subject, object, possessive, adverb of space, or adverb of time), and (2) the nature of the noun that the adjective clause modifies. This noun is known as the antecedent of the relative pronoun. We will examine both of these factors in more detail.
Role of the relative pronoun inside its own clause. We choose between who, whom, and whose depending on the role the relative pronoun plays. If the relative pronoun plays the role of subject, we must use who. If the relative pronoun plays the role of object, we must use whom. (The m in whom is historically the same object marker as in him and them.) If the relative pronoun is possessive, we must use whose. In the following examples the relative pronoun is in italics and the entire adjective clause is underlined.
Relative pronoun plays the role of subject
He is a person who will always do the right thing.
In this sentence, who is the subject of the verb do.
Please give your dues to Ms. Walker, who is the treasurer of the organization.
Here who is the subject of the verb is.
The musicians who played for us today are all from local schools.
In this sentence, who is the subject of the verb played.
Relative pronoun plays the role of object
He is a person whom I have always admired.
In this sentence, whom is the object of the verb admired—as in “I have always admired him.”
Please give your dues to Ms. Walker, whom you all met earlier.
Here whom is the object of the verb met—as in “We all met Ms. Walker earlier.”
The musicians, whom we selected from local schools, will play for us today.
Whom is the object of the verb selected—as in “We selected the musicians earlier.”
Relative pronoun as possessive
Mr. Smith, whose father founded the company, has worked here many years.
In this sentence, whose = Mr. Smith’s.
The companies whose employees are full time have done better.
Here whose = the companies’ employees.
Those bridges whose supports were damaged in the flood have been closed.
Here whose = those bridges’.
Exercise 4.5
The adjective clauses in the following sentences have been underlined. Replace the word(s) in parentheses with the appropriate relative pronoun.
1. Anybody (anybody) wants to leave now may do so.
2. The person (the person) you met at the reception is Paul Kennedy.
3. Jason Grant, (Jason Grant’s) daughter is a friend of Susan’s, teaches at MIT.
4. Did you ever hear from the client (the client) left a message for you yesterday?
5. The flower (the flower’s) name I couldn’t recall is a hydrangea.
6. This is my husband (my husband) I don’t think you have met before.
7. We need to replace the window (the window’s) glass was broken in the storm.
8. The club’s new president, (the president) has been here forever, is very popular.
9. All the employees (the employees) were hoping for a raise will be disappointed.
10. The new secretary (the secretary’s) name I can never remember left a message.
11. The drivers (the drivers) the company had hired were all new to the area.
12. We went back to the waiter (the waiter) had waited on us earlier.
13. I looked up the lawyer (the lawyer) you recommended.
14. I looked up the lawyer (the lawyer) wrote the contract.
15. I looked up the lawyer (the lawyer’s) presentation we all liked.
The nature of the noun that the relative clause modifies. The relative pronoun always immediately follows the noun that relative pronoun refers to. This noun is called the antecedent of the relative pronoun. For example, look at the following sentence:
We need to talk about the courses that you are going to take next term.
The antecedent of the relative pronoun that is the noun courses. Even when the relative pronoun is a possessive, the possessive must refer to the possessive form of the antecedent noun. For example, in the following sentence
The organization whose offices you visited was written up in a magazine.
Whose refers to the possessive form of the antecedent noun organization, that is, you visited the organization’s offices.
The nature of the antecedent also exerts control over which relative pronoun we use.
• If the antecedent is human, we must use who, whom, or whose as the relative pronoun.
(The choice among who, whom, and whose is governed by the role of the relative pronoun inside the adjective clause.)
• If the antecedent is not human, we must use that or which as the relative pronoun. (We
will discuss the distinction between that and which in great detail later in this chapter. For now, we will use that in all of our examples because the distinction between that and which is irrelevant to our discussion of how relative clauses are formed.)
• If the antecedent is a noun that refers to space (a spatial noun), we use where as the relative pronoun.
• If the antecedent is a noun that refers to time (a temporal noun), we use when as the relative pronoun. (We can also use that.)
In the following examples, the antecedent noun is in bold:
Human: This is the young man whom I was telling you about.
Nonhuman: This is the computer that I was telling you about.
Spatial noun: This is the place where we agreed to meet.
Temporal noun: This is the time when/that we agreed to meet.
Exercise 4.6
Fill in the blank with an appropriate relative pronoun. The antecedent noun is in bold and the adjective clause is underlined.
I know a Chinese restaurant (where) we can get really good dim sum.
1. It is a book ... has influenced us all.
2. It is a book ... message really influenced me.
3. He is staying with a cousin ... name is Williams.
4. He is staying with a cousin ... lives somewhere in Brookline.
5. We picked a date ... we could all get together.
6. Let me introduce you to my Uncle Jackson ... lives in Florida.
7. Let me introduce you to my Uncle Jackson ... I believe you have met before.
8. Let me introduce you to my Uncle Jackson ... company you may know about.
9. Hollywood is a city ... dreams seldom come true.
10. Do you remember the year ... Donna graduated from college?
11. The meals ... you get at camp leave a lot to be desired.
12. English is especially difficult for nonnative speakers ... school systems never used English as a language of instruction.
13. The stove ... they just bought takes up most of their kitchen.
14. Please ask the operator ... is on duty.
15. Please ask the operator ... you already talked to.
16. The union called off the strike ... was scheduled to take place tomorrow.
17. Residents of the city ... have not registered will not be able to vote.
18. The neighborhood ... I live is getting more expensive all the time.
19. A professor ... I had in college advocated pricing oil in Euros.
20. A professor ... you all know advocates pricing oil in Euros.
The following chart summarizes the basic rules about how the external and internal considerations jointly determine the form of the relative pronouns:
Exercise 4.7
Underline all the adjective clauses in the following sentences.
The seeds that you gave me have not sprouted.
1. My wife, whose enthusiasm knows no limits, has invited all of our friends over.
2. I couldn’t keep up with the pace that they were setting.
3. The track where we were running is in excellent shape.
4. The soloist was a pianist whom I had never even heard of before.
5. They damaged the gear that raises the front ramp.
6. He was a rare builder who never cut corners on anything.
7. We need to fly to Dallas where the meeting will be held.
8. The accident caused a concussion that has temporarily affected his short-term memory.
9. We proposed a site where there would be little impact on the environment.
10. They will identify the company whose bid won the contract.
11. Never pick a fight that you can’t win.
12. Everybody appreciated the breakfast that was given by the hosting organization.
13. The key that the desk clerk gave us would not unlock the door.
14. All of the scientists whose work we consulted were in substantial agreement.
15. All the difficulties that we went through were worth it.
16. The questions were answered by an official who asked not to be identified.
17. John Marshall, whose foundation sponsored the conference, gave the opening address.
18. Any extras that you have should be returned to the office.
19. We ended up watching a boring game whose outcome was never in doubt.
20. The commercials that we reviewed were all pretty bad.