Adding an Adjective Clause

Adjective Clauses
Adding an Adjective Clause	Framed \| Unframed

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An adjective can be one word, a phrase or a clause:

The new car is tiny. (adjective)
The car on top of the Hummer is tiny. (prepositional phrase)
The car that holds two passengers is tiny. (adjective clause)

Adding an adjective clause, joins two sentences into one:

One becomes the main sentence - the independent clause
The other becomes a modifying phrase - the dependent clause

Elevator Woman

Joining the Subject of a Dependent Clause

JOIN THE SENTENCES:		INDEPENDENT CLAUSE	DEPENDENT CLAUSE
1	Replace the subject pronoun It with that.	The car is economical to drive.	It is very small.
1	Replace the subject pronoun It with that.		that is very small
2	Insert the clause into the main sentence.
		The car	that is very small is economical to drive.

Common Mistake

ERROR	FIX
* The car is very economical that holds just two passengers. Place the clause next to the word it modifies: "car".	The car that holds just two passengers is very economical.

Joining the Object of a Dependent Clause

JOIN THE SENTENCES:		INDEPENDENT CLAUSE	DEPENDENT CLAUSE
1	Replace the object pronoun it with that	The car is economical to drive.	I want to buy it
1	Replace the object pronoun it with that		I want to buy that
2	Move the relative pronoun to the front of the sentence.
3	Insert the clause into the main sentence.
	Option: "that" can be omitted if the clause helps to identify the noun it modifies. more info	The car	(that) I want to buy is economical to drive.

Common Mistake

ERROR	FIX
* The car that I want to buy it is economical to drive. Delete "it". Otherwise, there are two pronouns referring to the car.	The car (that) I want to buy is economical to drive.

Practice

Join the two sentences into one sentence.

Change the second sentence into a clause. (Leave the prepositions at the end of the sentence.)

#	SENTENCES	CHECK
1	The car averages 39 miles per gallon. ADD: It holds about 9 gallons.
2	The car averages 39 miles per gallon. ADD: I want one!

3	When I was in Italy, I admired a Smart car . ADD: It was parked outside a cafe.
4	When I was in Italy, I leased a Smart car . ADD: I drove it across Europe.

5	The car is a Smart car. ADD: You can park it nose-in to the curb.
6	A parking space is perfect for a Smart car. ADD: It is too small for most cars.

7	A Smart car managed to do well in crash tests. ADD: Engineers tested it.
8	A Smart car managed to do well in crash tests. It was tested for head-on crashes. "that + be" deletion option

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Julie Sevastopoulos - ESL Department - College of San Mateo - San Mateo, CA 94402 USA