How do we use adjective clauses?
Adjective clauses are mainly used to identify someone or something. For instance, if there are many boys or mailboxes, and we want to identify specific ones, we can say:
- The boy who is wearing oversized clothing is blond.
- My mailbox is the one which has presents inside.
We can change these sentences so that the same adjective clauses become additional information:
- Tom, who is wearing oversized clothing, is blond.
- My mailbox, which has presents inside, is white.
If we take out the adjective clauses, the sentences still make sense:
- Tom is blond.
- My mailbox is white.
On the other hand, we cannot take out the adjective clauses in the first set of sentences.
- The boy is blond. (= What boy?)
- My mailbox is the one. (= What one?)
How do we form adjective clauses?
To form adjective clauses, we start with a relative pronoun: 'who', 'whom', 'whose', or 'which'. This lesson will focus on 'who' and 'which'.
1. Use 'who' to provide more information about someone.
Look at the man who is holding up a glass of beer!
- Do you know the people who designed our new logo?
- People who are under the age of 18 are not allowed to drink alcohol.
- He's the murderer who has been on the news recently.
2. Use 'which' to provide more information about some thing (an animal or an object).
I have a meeting at the building which is across the road from my office.
- The dress which Amy is wearing is beautiful.
- I saw a painting which was painted by Picasso.
