Adjective clauses and their types: essential and non-essential adjective clauses

Adjective clauses and their types: essential and non-essential adjective clauses

In this post, we learn what an adjective clause is and how to use it in English. At the end, a video lesson on adjective clauses is attached; you can scroll straight down if you prefer videos to articles.

What is an adjective clause?

An adjective clause is a type of dependent clause that functions as an adjective. It comes right after the noun or pronoun it modifies. An adjective clause begins with the following subordinating conjunctions (relative pronouns):

• Who
• Whom
• Whose
• That
• Which
• Why
• Where
• When.

Examples:

• The guy who lives next to my house is a professional fighter.
  “Who lives next to my house“ is the adjective clause that’s coming next to the noun ‘guy’ and modifying it.
• I love the book that my father gifted me on my last birthday.
  “That my father gifted me on my last birthday“ is the adjective clause that’s sitting next to the noun book and modifying it.

• We haven’t been to Dubai, which is one of my dream places to visit.
  “Which is one of my dream places to visit“ is the adjective clause that’s sitting next to the noun ‘Dubai’ and giving information about it. But here, it is giving non-essential information about the noun it’s modifying and that is why it is offset using a comma. ‘Dubai’ is a proper name and doesn’t need any modification to be identified.

Types of adjectives clauses in English

Hay dos tipos de cláusulas adjetivas según la información que dan:

• Essential adjective clauses
• Nonessential adjective clauses

Essential adjective clause

Essential adjective clauses are dependent clauses that modify a noun or pronoun with essential or defining information. The noun or pronoun they identify are neither proper nor specific. An essential adjective clause is important to the meaning of the sentence, as it provides essential information about the noun or pronoun it modifies.

Examples:

• I don’t know anyone who can teach you boxing.
• People who can control their minds live a highly successful life.
• We are looking for a place where we party peacefully.
• I know the reason why she broke up with you.
• That was the year when we got married.
• The box that you sent me yesterday was empty.
• I still have the letter that she had written for me on Valentine’s day.

Intente leer estas oraciones sin las cláusulas adjetivas; las oraciones tendrán un significado completamente diferente sin ellos. Es por eso que las llamamos cláusulas adjetivas esenciales, ya que son esenciales para dar el significado correcto.

NOTE: Essential adjective clauses are also called defining adjective clauses.

Nonessential adjective clause

Nonessential adjective clauses are dependent clauses that modify a noun or pronoun with nonessential or nondefining information. The noun or pronoun they identify are their own (already identified), and for this reason they are offset by commas.

Non-essential adjective clauses are also called non-defining adjective clauses.

Examples:

• Last month, we went on a trip to Auli, which is a beautiful place.
• Jon Jones, who is the light heavyweight champion in the UFC, got arrested last night.
• She doesn’t even know Max, whose bag she has stolen.
• Russell Peter, who is a famous comedian, is coming back to India after 15 years.
• After all the traveling and shopping, we dropped the plan to go to the Red Fort, which is a famous monument.
• Mangoes, which I love eating, are used in many dishes.

(Note that even though ‘mangos’ is a common noun, we are using commas before and after the adjective clause, as it only passes a comment about them, it does not identify them or tell us which mangoes the adjective is talking about. speaker).

Note that these adjective clauses are not essential to the central meaning of a sentence; they only provide additional information, which makes a sentence more attractive and meaningful, but they do not provide essential information about the nouns/pronouns they are modifying, since they are already identified/specified.

There are 3 components you need to form an adjective clause in English:

1. Relative pronoun
2. The subject of the clause (noun or pronoun)
3. The verb of the subject

These are the 3 things you need, at least, to form an adjective clause in English. Also note that an adjective clause sits right next to a noun or a pronoun, usually a noun, and modifies it with some information.

The cake that she had baked is still there in the fridge.

The relative pronoun (conjunction) sometimes functions as the subject of an adjective clause. Look carefully at these examples:

• The boy who was playing here yesterday has gone missing.
• We haven’t seen a man that can walk on water.

Adjective clauses and commas

Should adjective clauses be offset by commas or not? That depends on the job the adjective clause does in a sentence: if it provides essential (important) information to identify the noun/pronoun it modifies, don’t use commas to compensate for it. But if you provide additional (non-essential) information or just pass a comment about the noun or pronoun you modify, without helping readers identify the noun/pronoun you modify, use commas to compensate.

• I know a man who can teach you English. (Specifying which man the speaker is referring to)
• Virat Kohli, who is one of the best Indian cricketers, has opened an academy that will help school students to learn cricket.

Esta oración tiene dos cláusulas adjetivas: la primera “who is one of the best Indian cricketers“provides additional or non-essential information about the proper name ‘Virat Kohli’, but the second adjective clause“that will help students to learn cricket“is modifying the noun ‘academy’ with essential information; it is helping us understand what kind of academy it is going to be.

NOTA: “Who“can be used to provide essential and non-essential information, and“which“it cannot be used to provide essential information.

We can omit the relative pronoun in some cases.

If a relative pronoun has the subject of the adjective clause, it can be removed from the adjective clause without changing its meaning.

• She’s the girl who I love.
• She’s the girl I love.
• The match that we watched at his house was epic.
• The match we watched at his house was epic.

But if the relative pronoun itself functions as the subject of the adjective clause, it is not omitted.

• He is the person who can get you out of this situation.
• He is the person can get you out of this situation. ❌

NOTE: relative adverbs (when, where, why) are not omitted even if they have their subjects.

• We can’t remember the year when we got married.
• We can’t remember the year we got married. ❌
• I know a place where we can hide the money.
• I know a place we can hide the money. ❌
• That’s the reason why nobody confides anything in you.
• That’s the reason nobody confides anything in you. ❌

WHO vs THAT

‘Eso’ se puede usar en lugar de ‘quién’ en una cláusula adjetiva, ya que se puede usar para referirse tanto a una persona como a una cosa.

• The man who is standing next to Simran is a magician.
• The man that is standing next to Simran is a magician.

NOTE: When ‘that’ refers to a thing, ‘who’ cannot be used in place of it. It is only possible when ‘it’ refers to a person.

• Do you still have the mobile that your father gifted you in 2015?
• Do you still have the mobile who your father gifted you in 2015? ❌
• Talk to the girl that is wearing the red top.
• Talk to the girl who is wearing the red top.

More examples of adjectives clauses

• Do you have anything that I can read on the plane?
• The man whose daughter you have kidnapped is a gangster.
• Rajiv Chowk, which is one of the most famous metro stations in Delhi, is the place where I used to meet her.
• Do you still remember the time when we would bunk classes to play games?
• Most people don’t know the reason why they do what they do.
• The adjective clauses are colored red, and the nouns or pronouns they are modifying are in bold.

Key points

1. Both the relative pronouns WHO & THAT can be used in an essential adjective clause or a non-essential adjective clause.

• Arijit Singh, who is a brilliant singer, is from my hometown.
• Titanic, which is my favorite movie, was shot in a swimming pool.
• The boy who was selling notebooks at the stand was homeless.
• The book that is on the table is amazing.

2. The relative pronoun ‘THAT‘ can refer to both a person and a thing.

• I lost the card that she had given me. (referring to a thing)
• I know the girl that you are dating these days. (referring to a person)

3. An adjective clause is a dependent clause. It can’t stand on its own.
Las cláusulas adjetivas son un tipo de cláusula dependiente. No da un significado completo por sí solo. Debe agregarse a una cláusula independiente para dar un significado completo.

• Who loves you. (incomplete sentence, adjective clause)
• I know someone who loves you. (complete sentence)