Unit 12: Adjective Clauses with Prepositions; Adjective Phrases

Many people who want to learn and speak English correctly have a lot of problems to understand and create big sentences where we can find adjective clauses (also called an adjectival or relative clause). This unit it's very important to create complex sentences using adjective clauses with prepositions and how to change and reduce adjective clauses to adjective phrases. Let see!


Adjective Clauses with Prepositions

The relative pronouns who (m), that, which, and whose + noun can be used as object of prepositions in adjective clauses.

Example:

- He´s the teacher to whom they were talking. (very formal)
- He´s the teacher whom they were talking to.
- He´s the teacher that they were talking to.
- He´s the teacher they were talking to.

Be careful! Whose cannot be omitted.

-That’s the movie whose director I spoke of. (Correct)
- That’s the movie director I spoke of. (Incorrect)


Adjective Clauses with Quantifiers

Some adjective clauses have the pattern quantifier + of + relative pronoun.

Q = "quantifier" (... some children, 3 of whom were crying, came ...)

Examples:

- Cuzco has a lot of visitors, most of which come to see Machu Picchu.
- I have many teachers, all of whom are actors.

Note: Quantifiers occur only in clauses with whom, which, and whose. These clauses may refer to people or things. These clauses are formal.


Adjective Clauses with Nouns

Some adjective clauses have the pattern noun + of which.

N = "noun" (... my house, a picture of which I have here, is located ...)

Example:

- Movies, an example of which is Titanic, are still popular.

Be careful! These clauses refer only to things.


Reducing an adjective clause to an adjective phrase:

Adjective clauses can often be reduced to phrases. The relative pronoun (RP) must be the subject of the verb in the adjective clause. Adjective clauses can be reduced to phrases in two different ways depending on the verb in the adjective clause.

1. RP + BE = 0

-Teachers who are living in glass houses should not throw stones. (A. clause)
-Teachers living in glass houses should not throw stones. (A. phrase)

If the adjective clause requires commas, the adjective phrase also requires commas.
-The man, who was waiting for you, comes from Arequipa.
-The man, waiting for you, comes from Arequipa.

2. RP + OTHER VERB (not BE) = OTHER VERB + ing

Students who sit in the front row usually participate more. (A. Clause)
Students sitting in the front row usually participate more. (A. Phrase)

Note:
-A phrase has no subject or verb.
- A clause has a subject and a verb.

Be careful! Adjective clauses that do not have subject pronouns cannot be reduced.

-The book which* I read last week is great.
*This adjective clause has an object pronoun.


Changing an adjective clause to an adjective phrase:

Only adjective clauses that have a subject pronoun (who, which, that) are reduced to modify an adjective clause. In this case, there is no difference in meaning between the adjective clause and adjective phrase.

Examples:

- The car which is left on the street is broken. (Adjective clause)-
- The car left on the street is broken. (Adjective phrase)

- He’s the student who’s from La Cantuta UNIVERSITY. (A. clause)
- He’s the student from La Cantuta UNIVERSITY. (Adjective phrase)

Jesús Crispín (jessucito)
ADV 5