Reduced adjective clauses (rules and examples)

This post will help you understand what a reduced adjective clause is, and how to reduce an adjective clause to an adjective phrase or an adjective.

Before we understand how to reduce adjective clauses and why to do it, let’s get familiar with adjective clauses first.

What is an adjective clause ?

An adjective clause is a dependent clause that modifies a noun or a pronoun. It starts with a relative pronoun and comes right next to the noun or pronoun it modifies.

Relative pronouns: who, whom, that, which, whose

NOTE: adjective clauses can start with a relative adverb too. Relative adverbs: when, where, why

Examples:

All the above adjective clauses (colored red) are providing essential information about the noun/pronoun they are modifying (words in bold). But adjective clauses are also used to give extra or non-essential information about a noun. We call them non-essential adjective clauses, and they are offset using commas.

• My father, who is an amazing cook , loves helping people.
• We are planning to visit the Taj Mahal, which is a beautiful monument.
• Rahul, whose father is the CEO of this company , is my childhood friend.

NOTE 1: the pronoun ‘ which ‘ is always used with a non-essential adjective clause.

• Delhi, which is the capital of India, is my birth place. (we already know what Delhi is)
• We are all excited to go to London, which is very popular for its beautiful weather.

NOTE 2: both the relative pronouns ‘ who ‘ and ‘ whose ‘ can be used to give essential or non-essential information about a noun or a pronoun. So, they are used in both essential adjectives clauses and non-essential adjective clauses.

Essential adjective clauses ( who and whose )

Here, both the adjective clauses are providing essential information to identify the noun they are modifying.

Non-essential adjective clauses ( who and whose )

In these sentences, who and whose are used in the adjective clauses to give extra information as the nouns they are modifying are already identified.

Examples of an reduced adjective clause ?

Adjective clauses are often reduced to regular adjectives, adjective phrases, present participle phrases, past participle phrases, prepositional phrases, or appositive phrases, based on the structure of the adjective clauses.

Let’s look at some examples of reduced adjective clauses before we understand how they are reduced, and why we do it.

• Adjective clause: Do you know the guy who is sitting on your car ?
• Reduced adjective clause: Do you know the guy sitting on your car ?

Reduced Adjective Clause

How to reduce an adjective clause ?

Adjective clauses are written in different tenses and with different structures. We reduce an adjective clause to an adjective phrase or regular adjective based on the structure it has. A reduced adjective clause is also known as a reduced relative clause as an adjective clause is also called a relative clause.

Note that some adjective clauses can’t be reduced at all. We will be looking at them too. Let’s first understand all the different structures of adjective clauses that can be reduced.

Case 1: When the adjective clause has the following structure:

Relative pronoun (subject of the clause ) + to be verb (is/am/are/was/were) + present participle (V1+ing) + object/modifier (optional)

When an adjective clause has the above structure, we can reduce it to a present participle phrase (adjective) by taking out the ‘relative pronoun‘ and the ‘to be form of verb.’

Examples:

Notice that we have just taken out the relative pronoun ‘who‘ and the verb ‘is‘ to reduce the adjective clause (who is standing next to Max) to the adjective phrase (standing next to Max).

More examples

NOTE : we can still reduce an adjective clause to an adjective phrase if the present participle is in the passive form,

Structure :

Case 2: When the adjective clause has the following structure:

Relative pronoun (subject of the clause ) + to be verb (is/am/are/was/were) + past participle (V3) + object/modifier (optional)

Like the case 1, take out the ‘relative pronoun’ and the ‘to be verb’ to reduce the adjective clause to an adjective phrase. Note that in this structure, the adjective clause is in the Simple Present tense passive voice or the Simple Past tense passive voice.

Examples:

Case 3: When the adjective clause has the following structure:

Relative pronoun (subject of the clause ) + to be verb (is/am/are/was/were) + prepositional phrase

An adjective clause with such a structure is changed into a reduced adjective phrase by removing the relative pronoun and the linking verb (to be).

NOTE : it’s always your choice whether you want to reduce an adjective clause to a prepositional phrase or not. Sometimes, at least to me, they look better without being reduced.

Case 4: When the adjective clause has the following structure:

Relative pronoun (subject of the clause ) + to be verb (is/am/are/was/were) + an adjective (one word)

An adjective clause with such a structure is changed into a reduced adjective phrase by removing the relative pronoun and the linking verb (to be) and placing the adjective before the noun modified..

Examples :

Case 5: When the adjective clause has the following structure:

Relative pronoun (subject of the clause ) + to be verb (is/am/are/was/were) + an adjective phrase

An adjective clause with such a structure is changed into a reduced adjective phrase by removing the relative pronoun and the linking verb (to be).

Examples :

Case 6: When the adjective clause has the following structure:

Relative pronoun (subject of the clause ) + to be verb (is/am/are/was/were) + noun phrase

An adjective clause with such a structure is changed into a reduced adjective phrase by removing the relative pronoun and the linking verb (to be).

Examples :

NOTE : a noun phrase that sits next to another noun and renames it is called an appositive phrase.

Case 7: When the adjective clause has the following structure:

Relative pronoun (subject of the clause ) + V1/V2 + object/modifier (optional)

An adjective clause with such a structure is reduced by dropping the relative pronoun and changing the verb from its base form to a present participle .

Examples :

When an adjective can’t be reduced!

Not all the adjective clauses can be reduced to an adjective phrase or an adjective.

CASE 1: an adjective clause can’t be reduced when the relative pronoun is followed by its subject.

We can’t reduce this adjective clause.

More examples:

CASE 2: When adjective clauses start with the followin g relative pronouns and adverbs: whom, whose, where, why, and when.

We can’t reduce these adjective clauses as they start with the above-mentioned relative pronouns and adverbs, and they have a subject of the adjective clause after them.

What can an adjective clause get reduced to?

An adjective clause can get reduced to the following things:

  1. Adjective (one word)
  2. Adjective phrase
  3. Present participle phrase
  4. Past participle phrase
  5. Prepositional phrase
  6. Absolute phrase

Let’s understand them separately.

1. Reducing an adjective clause to an adjective

When an adjective clause is reduced to an adjective (one word), the adjective is usually placed before the noun it modifies.

Process :

  1. Remove the relative pronoun.
  2. Remove the ‘to be’ verb.
  3. Place the adjective used in the adjective clause before the noun/pronoun it modifies.

Examples :

NOTE : If the adjective clause has anything after the adjective, we can’t reduce it to an adjective (one word). It will be an adjective phrase (adjective + modifier), and we won’t be able to place it before the noun modified either.

2. Reducing an adjective clause to an adjective phrase

Process :

  1. Remove the relative pronoun.
  2. Remove the ‘to be’ verb.
  3. keep the adjective and the modifier (adjective phrase) placed after the noun/pronoun modified.

Examples:

3. Reducing an adjective clause to a present participle phrase

We can reduce an adjective clause to a present participle phrase. But for that to happen, the adjective clause must have a present participle after the ‘to be form of verb.’

Process :

  1. Remove the relative pronoun.
  2. Remove the ‘to be’ verb.
  3. keep the present participle and the object/modifier (present participle phrase) placed after the noun/pronoun modified.

Examples:


4. Reducing an adjective clause to a past participle phrase

We can also reduce an adjective clause to a past participle phrase. But for that to happen, the adjective clause must have a past participle after the ‘to be form of verb.’

Process:

  1. Remove the relative pronoun.
  2. Remove the ‘to be’ verb.
  3. keep the past participle and the object/modifier (past participle phrase) placed after the noun/pronoun modified.

Examples:


5. Reducing an adjective clause to a prepositional phrase

We can reduce an adjective clause to a prepositional phrase when the adjective clause has a prepositional phrase after the ‘to be form of verb.’

Process:

  1. Remove the relative pronoun.
  2. Remove the ‘to be’ verb.
  3. keep the prepositional phrase placed after the noun/pronoun modified.

Examples:


6. Reducing an adjective clause to an appositive phrase

We can reduce an adjective clause to an appositive phrase when the adjective clause has a noun phrase after the ‘to be form of verb.’

Process:

  1. Remove the relative pronoun.
  2. Remove the ‘to be’ verb.
  3. keep the noun phrase placed after the noun/pronoun modified.

NOTE : an appositive phrase is a noun phrase that renames another noun.

Examples :

Why do we reduce an adjective clause?

We use reduced adjective clauses as they remove the extra information from an adjective clause and make it look more precise.

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Practice set!

1. Have you met the girl whom I was talking about last week?
2. The man who is walking on the rope is an English teacher.
3. I know a place where we can hide this.
4. A person who is motivated can do anything.
5. They will pay for everything that was burnt in the fire.
6. A man who is mentally strong can go through anything in life.
7. Could you please pass me the book that is on the bed table?
8. I don’t see any reason why we can’t do this.

Answers.

1. Can’t be reduced.
2. The man walking on the rope is an English teacher.
3. Can’t be reduced.
4. A motivated person can do anything.
5. They will pay for everything burnt in the fire.
6. A mentally strong man can go through anything in life.
7. Could you please pass me the book on the bed table?
8. Can’t be reduced.

Hope you enjoyed the lesson! Feel free to share your question, doubt, or feedback in the comment section, and also, share the post with the people that need it.

For one-on-one classes, contact me at [email protected].

How do you make a reduced adjective clause?

A reduced adjective clause is formed out of an adjective clause by removing some parts of the adjective clause, generally the conjunction and the helping verb. The reduction depends upon the structure of the adjective clause.

What is an example of an adjective clause?

Adjective clause: I am here to get details about the house that is falsely registered in my name.
Reduced adjective clause: I am here to get details about the house falsely registered in my name.

How do you identify an adjective clause in a sentence?

Here are the things you can notice about adjective clauses:
1. They come right after a noun.
2. They have both a subject and a verb.
3. They start with a conjunction. (who, whom, that, which, whose, why, when, why, how)
4. If they don’t come after a noun and don’t function as an adjective, they are not adjective clauses.