Let's face it guys, single words are not always sufficient for describing the qualities or attributes of people or object. Even though there are single words that guage certain qualities or attributes, they do not hit the spot as accurately as multiple words that provide more insight and description which is why we often result to using adjective clauses, and this brings us to the study of adjective clauses in English.
What are Adjective Clauses?
Adjective clauses are dependent clauses that perform the same functions as adjectives. They are dependent clauses because they do not express a complete meaning or thought in isolation, and so they must be attached or embedded in independent clauses or sentences, to express complete meaning. Adjective Clauses perform the same function as adjectives by describing the qualities or attributes of a person or object. Take for instance:
The teacher is who the old students say he is.
The example above is a sentence and within the sentence, is an adjective clause at the final position: "who the old students say he is". Now if you know adjectives very well and how they work in sentences, you would be able to tell that some adjectives appear after linking verbs in sentences. Linking verbs are verbs that show the relationship between nouns and their qualities: the link. For instance: the verb "to be", and its variants: "be", "is", "was", "were", etc., are all linking verbs. In the example above, the verb: "is", shows the link between: "the teacher', and "who the old students say he is"—the teacher's quality.
The adjective clause in the example appears right after the linking verb in the sentence, which makes it easier for us to spot and identify it. And like regular adjectives, it describes the noun in the sentence: "teacher", by telling his quality: "who the old students say he is".
Besides locating clauses that appear right after linking verbs in sentences, how else do you identify adjective clauses?
Structure of Adjective Clauses
To identify adjective clauses, easily, in sentences, you need to look out for their structure. The structure of adjective clauses is similar to that of noun clauses. They are introduced by relative pronouns: "who", "whom", "what", "whose", etc., contain verbs which are mandatory as well as subjects and other grammatical elements.
That is what we should avoid.
From the example above, you will observe that the adjective clause is introduced by a relative pronoun: "what", followed by a subject: "we", and a verb phrase: "should avoid". This is just like in noun clauses, the difference is that adjective clauses describe nouns in sentences rather than single word adjectives, while noun clauses act as subjects or objects in sentences just like regular nouns.
It is important to note that adjective clauses do not only describe the qualities or attributes of nouns, but they also describe the qualities of pronouns. From the example above, the subject of the sentence is a pronoun, relative pronoun: "that", and is described by the adjective clause in the sentence. It is also important to note that relative pronouns, verbs, and subjects are mandatory elements of structure in adjective clauses, subjects are not mandatory in forming adjective clauses.
Take for instance:
That is what should be avoided.
You would observe that the adjective clause in the example above is lacking a subject which gives it a passive tone but that, nonetheless, does not render the sentence ungrammatical so we can have adjective clauses without subjects since they are optional.
Types of Adjective Clauses
There are two recognized types of Adjective Clauses in English, namely: restrictive clause and non-restrictive clause.
Restrictive Clause
Restrictive clause is a type of adjective clause whose meaning is relevant to the understanding of a sentence. That is, clauses that are critical components of sentences such that when they are removed, the meaning of the sentences will be visibly affected. Because they are crucial elements of sentences, they are not separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. Take for instance,
This is what I was talking about.
The restrictive clause in the sentence above: "what I was talking about", is a crucial element of the sentence such that it completes the sentence. If we take it away, the sentence would lose meaning and grammaticality. For instance:
This is.
Another example:
That is the man that hosted the party.
If we take away the restrictive clause, the sentence would still be grammatical but its meaning will be incomplete. Take for instance:
That is the man.
Non-restrictive Clause
Non-restrictive Clauses are adjective clauses that are not crucial to the understanding of sentences. They are optional and do not play special roles that contribute to the overall meaning of sentences. Because of this, they are marked off from the rest of the sentence by commas. Take for instance:
The Titanic movie is a masterpiece, that was rendered perfectly well, even to this day.
You can see that the non-restrictive clause is not only within the sentence—although it can appear at the end—but it is also enclosed in commas and this shows that they can be omitted without drastically affecting the meaning of the sentence. So if we take away the non-restrictive clause, the sentence would read:
The Titanic movie is a masterpiece even to this day.
The sentence is both grammatical and expresses a complete meaning that is not affected by the omission. This is because, it is a convention or general agreement that the movie: Titanic, is a masterpiece even to this day, and so we do not need extra additional information like: "that was rendered very well", to know that. Non-restrictive Clauses give additional details that can be omitted without hindering the meaning of a sentence.
Functions of Adjective Clauses
Just like regular adjectives: Adjective Clauses perform the function of describing the qualities or attributes of nouns or pronouns. For instance:
John is what I call a man.
"what I call a man", is the quality of the noun: "John". Now while the exact qualities were not stated, it does tell us the qualities, "John", possesses, which would be fully understood if we are given more context. Like:
He is brave, strong, caring, hardworking, smart. Infact, John is what I call a man.
There is the context.
So adjective clauses are simply adjectives but with more words. This is because they are dependent clauses that describe the qualities of nouns or pronouns. They share a similar structure with noun clauses but differ by function. There are two types of Adjective Clauses which are restrictive and non-restrictive Clauses. Understanding Adjective Clauses will better inform you on how to use them in writing to achieve an intended effect on your readers.
Read more:
- Common Nouns in English Uncovered
- Understanding Proper Nouns in English
- Complete Rules of Concord in English: An Extensive Guide