4.7: Relative/ Adjective Clauses

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Don Bissonnette
South Seattle Community College

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Relative Clauses/Adjective Clauses

A relative clause is a dependent clause that is used as an adjective. In other words, it is a group of words with a subject and a verb that can’t stand alone and is used to modify or describe a noun. A relative clause always begins with a relative pronoun. Another name for a relative clause is an adjective clause. The relative pronouns are as follows:

Relative Pronouns Compound Relative Pronouns

Who             people   (subjects)                           whoever / whosoever
Whom          people   (objects)                             whomever / whomsoever
Which things, animals                                whichever / whichsoever
That             people, places, things, animals
Whose          possessive nouns and adjectives        whosever / whosesoever
Where    places                                           wherever / wheresoever
When times                                          whenever / whensoever
Why reasons                                        whyever / whysoever

Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses. As I said above, another name for a relative clause is an adjective clause because, like adjectives, relative clauses modify (change or describe) nouns. Relative pronouns generally come directly after the noun they modify. The noun that the relative pronoun modifies has the same meaning as the relative pronoun. The compound relative pronouns with the –ever and –soever (rarely used anymore) suffixes added on to the relative pronoun intensify the meaning to cover any and all possibilities of the particular relative pronoun. (Also, the words where, when, and why listed above are actually relative adverbs, but they are used exactly as relative pronouns. Furthermore, the word whose is in fact a relative adjective, but it also is used exactly as a relative pronoun.)

Examples:

The person who stole my car left it parked on Aurora Avenue North.
I gave the report to the girl whose father visited our class.
The reason why he came to my office was to tell me a secret.
The man that I saw was standing on the east side of the street.
The book that I bought cost $28.00.
The city that I am thinking about is not very big.
The thieves whoever they are had better not try to sell the stolen goods.
The man whosoever she finally decides to marry had better be rich.

Diagrammed Relative Clauses

Relative clauses are actually two complete sentences joined together into one sentence. One sentence is an independent clause (a complete sentence) and the other becomes a relative clause (not a complete sentence). In other words, two sentences become one sentence.
Note these examples, please.

John is studying in the library. John is waiting for his friend.
John, who is waiting for his friend, is studying in the library.

My son is looking for his book. He lost the book yesterday.
My son is looking for the book that he lost yesterday.

I went for a walk with my friend. His father is a lawyer.
I went for a walk with my friend whose father is a lawyer.

Central Falls is the city. I was born in the city.
Central Falls is the city where I was born.

Wednesday is the day. I take out the trash on that day.
Wednesday is the day when I take out the trash.

Roger is my best friend. I met Roger in Iran in 1975.
Roger, whom I met in 1975, is my best friend.