Adjective Clause: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know what an adjective clause is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on adjective clauses, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What is an adjective clause?

According to Your Dictionary, adjective clauses, also known as relative clauses, are groups of words that contain a subject and a verb and provide further description. These can begin with relative pronouns or relative adverbs including who, whom, whose, that, which, when, where, and why. This can be considered an essential clause or a non-essential clause. An essential clause, or essential adjective clauses is vital for the rest of the sentence to make sense and provides essential information. A non-essential clause provides extra information or additional information. An adjective clause will be connected to the rest of the sentence with punctuation like commas or a semicolon, along with conjunctions. 

What are examples of adjective clauses?

Adjective clauses can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or grammatical technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of adjective clauses that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use.  Take a look at these adjective clause examples from Your Dictionary and Soft Schools and see how many you can identify the adjective clause in.

  •  “Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.” – Erma Bombeck
  •  “Those who do not complain are never pitied.” – Jane Austen
  •  The lady who lives across the street is my aunt.
  •  Those people whose names are on the list will go to camp.
  •  I know someone whose father served in World War II.
  •  Can you see the bird that is on the fence? 
  •  My brother is the person with the blue car whom was played a trick on Tuesday after his exam.
  •  I can see why the English teachers are so strict about grammar; this handout is rife with fragments, mussed quotations, and more that we learned in our lesson.
  •  The slurping noise, which is incredibly annoying, is the main reason Sue does not like to eat soup with her brother.
  •  Jacob was given a gift that his aunt purchased. The prize was so much fun.
  •  “People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.” – Søren Kierkegaard
  •  I enjoy telling people about Janet Evanovich, whose latest book was fantastic.
  •  Students who work hard get good grades.
  •  The moment when the clown burst in to surprise the teacher was great! 
  •  The reason why I left is a secret.
  •  The people who are going to get ice cream are Americans who do not eat chicken.
  •  The book that is on the chair belongs to Marvin.
  •  The store where the new phone was being sold had a huge line of people outside it.
  •  I do not like people who are mean to animals.
  •  “He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead.” – Albert Einstein
  •  I like pizza, which is also the favorite of my sister Jean. 
  •  Eco-friendly cars, which primarily run on electricity, help the environment.
  •  Pizza, which most people love, is not very healthy.
  •  The boy whose shoes are on the floor is my little brother. 
  •  Grandpa remembers the old days when there was no television.
  •  Fruit that is grown organically is expensive.
  •  Did you go to the school where my friend Jim goes? 
  •  The kids who were called first will have the best chance of getting a seat.
  •  The cat whom we are watching just caught a mouse! 

What are other literary techniques and devices?

There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you. 

  •  clause
  •  direct speech
  •  first person
  •  modify | modifier
  •  personal pronoun
  •  agree | agreement
  •  non-referential
  •  protasis
  •  singular
  •  suffix
  •  antecedent
  •  person
  •  simple
  •  pronoun (pron.)
  •  superlative
  •  objective
  •  participle | past participle | present participle
  •  indirect question
  •  infinitive
  •  nominal relative | nominal relative clause
  •  postmodify | postmodifier
  •  passive
  •  reflexive
  •  possessive adjective
  •  preposition (prep.)
  •  perfect
  •  quasi-
  •  noun (n.)
  •  determiner
  •  periphrasis | periphrastic
  •  special use
  •  indirect speech
  •  predicative
  •  instrumental
  •  past participle
  •  subjective
  •  prepositional phrase
  •  article
  •  complement
  •  compound | compounding
  •  mass noun
  •  genitive
  •  combination
  •  possessive pronoun
  •  filler
  •  indefinite
  •  interrogative
  •  dative
  •  main verb
  •  phrase (phr.)
  •  feminine
  •  prepositional passive
  •  imperative (imper.)
  •  adverbial | adverbially
  •  anaphoric
  •  pro-form
  •  second person
  •  dependent clause
  •  locative
  •  indirect passive
  •  construction
  •  gerund
  •  to-infinitive
  •  head
  •  verbal noun
  •  relative
  •  progressive
  •  copular verb | copula
  •  complementary
  •  unmarked genitive
  •  construed (const., constr.)
  •  count noun
  •  past tense
  •  indirect object
  •  noun phrase
  •  part of speech
  •  transitive
  •  collective noun
  •  modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
  •  pleonasm | pleonastic
  •  impersonal (impers.)
  •  demonstrative
  •  collocation | collocate
  •  similative
  •  element
  •  main clause
  •  appositive
  •  conditional
  •  common noun
  •  conjunction (conj.)
  •  phrasal verb
  •  apodosis and protasis
  •  inflection | inflected | inflectional
  •  subject
  •  subordinate clause
  •  verb (v.)
  •  apposition
  •  absolute (absol.)
  •  subjunctive
  •  present tense
  •  finite
  •  optative
  •  parenthetical | parenthetically
  •  base form
  •  declarative
  •  passive infinitive
  •  indicative
  •  stem
  •  direct object
  •  positive
  •  cognate object
  •  case
  •  attributive
  •  bare infinitive
  •  zero
  •  prepositional object
  •  nominative
  •  direct question
  •  ellipsis | elliptical
  •  double object
  •  present participle
  •  mood
  •  adverb (adv.)
  •  abstract
  •  tense
  •  anticipatory
  •  comparative
  •  sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
  •  vocative
  •  gender
  •  auxiliary verb | auxiliary
  •  proper noun | proper name
  •  morpheme
  •  premodify | premodifier
  •  number
  •  active
  •  concrete
  •  interjection
  •  agent noun
  •  prefix
  •  intensifier
  •  non-finite
  •  masculine
  •  adjective
  •  combining form (comb. form)
  •  causative
  •  dual
  •  possessive
  •  plural
  •  accusative
  •  intransitive
  •  that-clause
  •  parasynthetic
  •  definite article
  •  participial adjective
  •  third-person
  •  neuter
  •  object | direct object | indirect object
  •  cataphoric

Overall, an adjective clause is a dependent clause that introduces information about a subject.

Sources:

  1. Glossary of grammatical terms | OED 
  2. Examples of Adjective Clauses in Sentences | Your Dictionary 
  3. Adjective Clause Examples | Soft Schools