Gerardo Barrios University

School of Arts & Science

Grammar II

Semester 4

Licda. Irma Cecilia Granada

Topic: Adjective Clauses

Group 6.

Juana del Pilar Ayala Fuentes

Gabriel Arnoldo Flores Aparicio

Bessy Gabriela Guerrero Chavez

Cristian Josu Martnez Argueta

Aminta Valentina Pineda Leiva

Date: December 12th, 2016

 Introduction
This research paper is based directly on identify what are the adjective
clauses which are also known by grammarians as relative clauses, how they can
be used, and when they could be used in a sentence, as well as what is a relative
pronoun, and what are the functions that each of them could develop in a
sentence, and at last point this paper include information about what is an
identifying relative clause and what is a non-identifying relative clause. The main
goal of this paper is to improve our grammars knowledge about this important and
new topic for us as group at the same that we share our information with our
classmates in order to try to help them to enhance their grammar knowledge as
well as we could do it.

Significance of the topic

 As we already know an adjective clause is a clause that in some cases does
not express a complete thought, so it cannot stand alone as a sentence, in other
words each of the clauses in a sentence could have meaning by itself or could not
have meaning by itself, and it is in this part where we realize the real importance of
the adjective clauses (also known as relative clauses) as well as the relative
pronouns, but why are these clauses or pronouns important? Because, in some
case, they help us to provide extra information into a sentence when it is needed,
because each of the two clause in a sentences need the other clause to give a
most meaningful sense, and the words in charge to linking those clause are the
relative pronouns, which are the words that help us to understand that there are a
relationship between the two clause to extend the details of any sentence.

ADJECTIVE CLAUSES
 First at all we have to know what are adjectives and clauses

Adjectives
Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the
sentence.

the tall professor

the lugubrious lieutenant
a solid commitment
a month's pay
a six-year-old child
the unhappiest, richest man

What Are Clauses?

A clause is a group of words that includes a subject and a verb.

A clause can be distinguished from a phrase, which does not contain a subject and
a verb (e.g., in the afternoon, drinking from the bowl).

An independent clause can express a complete thought (and can be a standalone

sentence). A dependent clause is usually a supporting part of a sentence, and it
cannot stand by itself as a meaningful proposition (idea).

Examples of Independent Clauses

Here are some examples of independent clauses (shaded).

Tara ate a cheese roll after she watched the news.

(Tara ate a cheese roll is an independent clause. It works as a standalone
sentence.)

Even though his mother was a driving instructor, my cousin failed his
driving test six times.
A computer once beat me at chess but was no match for me at kick
boxing. (Louis Hector Berlioz)

Examples of Dependent Clauses

 Here are the same examples with the dependent clauses shaded:

Tara ate a cheese roll after she watched the news.

(The clause after she watched the news is a dependent clause. It does not
work as a standalone sentence.)

Even though his mother was a driving instructor, my cousin failed his
driving test six times.
A computer once beat me at chess but was no match for me at kick
boxing.

WHAT IS AN ADJETIVE CLAUSE?

When we think of an adjective, we usually think about a single word used before
a noun to modify its meanings
(e.g., tall building, smelly cat, argumentative assistant). However, an adjective can
also come in the form of an adjective clause.

An adjective clause usually comes after the noun it modifies and is made up of
several words which, like all clauses, will include a subject and a verb.

The Components of an Adjective Clause.

An adjective clause (which can also be called an adjectival clause or a relative

clause) will have the following three traits:

It will start with a relative pronoun (who, whom, whose, that, or which) or
a relative adverb (when, where, or why).
(This links it to the noun it is modifying.)(Note: Quite often, the relative
pronoun can be omitted. However, with an adjective clause, it is always
possible to put one in. There is more on this below.)

It will have a subject and a verb.

(These are what make it a clause.)
It will tell us something about the noun.
(This is why it is a kind of adjective.)
The main relative pronouns are:
Pronoun Use Example
Hans, who is an architect,
Who used for humans in the subject position
lives in Berlin.
Marike, whom Hans knows
Whom used for humans in the object position
well, is an interior decorator.
Marike has a
used for things and animals in
Which dog which follows her
the subject or object position
everywhere.
used for humans, animals and things, in
Marike is decorating a
That the subject or object position (but see
house that Hans designed.
below)
used for humans, animals and things in Marike, whose dog follows
Whose the subject or object position to show her everywhere, is an animal
possession lover.

Subject Pronoun or Object Pronoun in Adjective

clauses?

Subject and object pronouns cannot be distinguished by their forms - who, which,
that are used for subject and object pronouns. The relative pronoun can define the
subject or the object of the verb.

Theyre the people who/that bought our house. (The people bought our
house. The people is the subject.)

Theyre the people who/that she met at Jons party. (She met the
people. The people is the object.)

Here are some cells which/that show abnormality. (Some cells show
abnormality. Some cells is the subject.)

Here are some cells which/that the researcher has identified. (The
researcher has identified some cells. Some cells is the object.)
Adjective clauses with subject
relative pronouns

If the relative pronoun is followed by a verb, the relative pronoun is a subject

pronoun. Subject pronouns must always be used.
1. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

-George Santayana
Here, the adjective clause is describing the pronoun those it is giving us more
information on who those people are. It begins with the pronoun who, and who is
the subject of the clause.

2. The four gas giant planets, which are Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus,
are further away from the Sun than the rocky planets.

The adjective clause in this sentence is describing the gas giant planets in more
detail. It is giving the reader more description about the outer planets. The clause
begins with the pronoun which and answers the question, Which planets?

3. The man who owns Curious George wears a yellow hat.

In this example, who is a pronoun and the subject of the adjective clause. The
clause describes man, which is the subject of the main clause The man wears a
yellow hat. Owns is the verb, because it is the action that who is doing.

4. The dog that performs the most tricks will win the prize.
The subject of this adjective clause is that, and the clause modifies the word dog.
The verb here is performs because that is what the subject, that, is doing.

Adjective clauses with object

relative pronouns

Next, let's talk about when the relative pronoun is the object of the clause. In this
case we can drop the relative pronoun if we want to. Again, the clause can come
after the subject or the object of the sentence. Here are some examples:

(Clause after the object)

She loves the chocolate (which / that) I bought.

We went to the village (which / that) Lucy recommended.

John met a woman (who / that) I had been to school with.

The police arrested a man (who / that) Jill worked with.

(Clause after the subject)

The bike (which / that) I loved was stolen.

The university (which / that) she likes is famous.

The woman (who / that) my brother loves is from Mexico.

The doctor (who / that) my grandmother liked lives in New York.

Adjective Clause beginning with an Adverb

When an adjective clause begins with an adverb, the noun or pronoun following
the adverb is the subject.

Example 1:

The restaurant where they serve fried zucchini is my favorite.

This adjective clause begins with an adverb (where). The subject of the clause is
the pronoun they. The verb is serve, and the adjective clause describes the
restaurant.

Example 2:

Do remember that time when we saw an eagle flying?

The adverb when begins this adjective clause. The subject of the clause is we,
the verb is saw, and the adjective clause describes time. The clause answers the
question, Which time?

Some more examples of adjective clauses with relative adverbs:

This is the park where we played

Tuesday is the day when we have pizza for dinner

Our teacher told us the reason why we study grammar

Identifying adjective clauses
We use defining relative clauses to give essential information about someone or
something information that we need in order to understand what or who is being
referred to. A defining relative clause usually comes immediately after the noun it
describes.

We usually use a relative pronoun (e.g. who, that, which, whose and whom) to
introduce a defining relative clause (In the examples, the relative clause is in bold,
and the person or thing being referred to is underlined.):

Theyre the people who want to buy our house.

Here are some cells which have been affected.

They should give the money to somebody who they think needs the treatment
most.

[talking about an actress]

Shes now playing a woman whose son was killed in the First World War.

Spoken English:
In defining relative clauses we often use that instead of who, whom or which. This
is very common in informal speaking:

Theyre the people that want to buy our house.

Here are some cells that have been affected.

Non-Identifying relative clauses:

A non-defining relative clause gives us extra information about something. We
don't need this information to understand the sentence.

We don't use 'that' in non-defining relative clauses, so we need to use 'which' if the
pronoun refers to a thing, and 'who' if it refers to a person. We can't drop the
relative pronoun in this kind of clause, even if the relative pronoun is the subject of
the clause.

I live in London, which has some fantastic parks.

(Everybody knows where London is, so 'which has some fantastic parks' is
extra information).

(Clause comes after the subject)

My boss, who is very nice, lives in Manchester.

My sister, who I live with, knows a lot about cars.

My bicycle, which I've had for more than ten years, is falling apart.

My mother's house, which I grew up in, is very small.

(Clause comes after the object)

Yesterday I called our friend Julie, who lives in New York.

The photographer called to the Queen, who looked annoyed.

Last week I bought a new computer, which I don't like now.

I really love the new Chinese restaurant, which we went to last night.
 Delimitations

For our work we found some problems during the realization of the investigations
that we detailed below:

Some information sources that we visited on the web didnt have all the
information required.
The comprehension of the topic was a little difficult at first.
 Summary

The adjective clauses are group of words that have a subject and a verb and they
tell or give information about the subject in a clause. The adjective clauses are
subordinate clauses and what this means is that they depend on another clause in
this case the main sentence.
An adjective clause begin with relative pronouns which are (who, whom, whose,
that and which) and relative adverbs which are (when, where and why), the relative
pronouns can describe the subject and the object of a clause and relatives
adverbs can describe the only the object of a clause.

There are two classifications of adjective clauses, which are (adjective clauses with
subject relative pronouns) and (adjective clauses with object relative pronouns).

An adjective clause with subject relative pronouns is formed when the adjective
clause begins with a relative pronoun either who, which or that and it follows a
verb, so the relative pronoun is the subject and the relative pronoun cant be
omitted.

An adjective clause with object relative pronoun is formed when the adjective
clause begins with a relative pronoun and it follows a noun or a pronoun, so the
relative pronoun is the object and the relative pronoun can be dropped if you want.

Then we have identifying and non-identifying adjective clauses

We use identifying adjective clauses to express or give essential information about
someone or something information that we need in order to understand what or
who we are referring to. We often use a relative pronoun (who, which, that) to
introduce a identifying adjective clause.

And finally we use non-identifying adjective clause to give extra information about
something, and we dont need this information to understand the sentence. In non-
identifying adjective clauses we dont use (that), instead of that we use (who) to
refer to someone and (which) to refer to a thing.
 Conclusions

To sum up with this research paper about the uses of adjective clause, it can be
said that:

If we learn about what is an adjective clause, it could help us to increase

our grammars knowledge and to enhance our writing skills.

The use of a relative pronoun between two clauses can help us to

understand a sentence in a better way because they join two clause which
are related to give it an understanding meaning.

Relative pronouns are useful because they could give meaning to two
different clauses which could have not meaning by themselves.

Recomendations

We recommended knowing each of the uses of the relative pronouns in the

adjective clauses.
We recommended knowing the right grammatical form to write the adjective
clauses.
Its recommended dont forget that all adjective clauses are subordinate
conjuctions.
 References

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adjectives.htm

http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/clause.htm

http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/adjective_clauses.htm

http://englishsentences.com/adjective-clause/
http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/adj.htm
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/gramatica/gramatica-
britanica/relative-clauses/relative-clauses-defining-and-non-
defining