What's an adjective?

>To understand what an adjectiveclause is, we need to understand what adjectives and clauses are. Most of you probably know what an adjective is. In English, adjectives are used to modify or describe nouns. For example, adjectives can show size, color, emotion, and quantity. Here are some sentences with adjectives. Can you identify them?

• Mary bought a red sweater at the department store for her mother.
• The sweater was too small.
• Mary felt very disappointed.
• Mary's mother received nice gifts for her birthday.
• >
  
  
  
  >Here are the same sentences with the adjectives in red.
  
• Mary bought a redsweater at the department store for her mother.
• The sweater was too small.
• Mary felt very disappointed.
• Mary's mother received nice gifts for her birthday.
• >Adjectives can describe a noun in two different ways. The adjective can come before the noun (a red sweater) or it can be connected to a noun with a linking verb (sweater was small; Mary felt disappointed).
  
  
  

What's a clause?

>What is a clause? In English, a clause is a set of words that includes a subject and a verb. Sentences are clauses because they always have a subject and a verb. These are clauses too:
> because the sweater was too small
> but she received many other gifts
> which she bought for her mother
>Can you find the subjects and verbs in each? Click on the question mark to check your answers.
>

Another example

>Imagine that I have invited you to my home for Thanksgiving. You look around the room, and you ask me about the different people. Since there are several men and women in the room, I use adjectiveclauses to identify the different people.
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>1. The woman who is pushing the baby stroller is my sister, Karen.
>2. The man who is wearing glasses is my Uncle Kenneth.
>3. The woman who Karen is talking to is my cousin, Gina.
>4. The man who Uncle Kenneth is talking to is my brother, Robert

The different kinds of adjectiveclauses

>Before we can talk about how to make adjectiveclauses, let me give you some examples of the different kinds of adjectiveclauses. Click on the green question mark to understand the different types better.
Subject Adjective Clauses The people who came to my party had a good time. Object Adjective Clauses The turkeythat my father cooked was delicious. Possessive Adjective Clauses The woman whose baby cried during dinner was my sister, Karen. Location Adjective Clauses The house where we had the party belongs to my Uncle Kenneth.

Subject Adjective Clauses

>The people who came to my party had a good time.
>In a subject adjectiveclause, the subject of the adjectiveclause is the same as the noun it describes.
>In the above sentence, the main sentence is: The people had a good time.
>We want to use this sentence to describe the "people" in the main sentence. They came to my party. Notice that the subject of this sentence is also referring to "people."
>To create the adjectiveclause, we change the subject of the adjectiveclause. For subjects which are people, we can use who or that. The most commonly used one is that.
>who came to my party.
that came to my party.
>Then the adjectiveclause goes after the noun we are describing. The result is:
>The people who came to my party had a good time.
The people that came to my party had a good time.
>If the subject of the adjectiveclause is a thing, use which or that.
>I need to wash the shirt which has a stain on the pocket.
I need to wash the shirt that has a stain on the pocket.
>Notice that the main sentence does not change word order.



In this exercise, you will combine the two sentences, changing the second sentence into a subject adjectiveclause.
> 1. The man is nervous. He is waiting for a job interview.
> 2. I know the man. He got the job.
> 3. The woman is the personnel director. She interviewed him.
> 4. He is going to work for a company. It is located in San Jose, California.
> 5. He is taking a job. It pays $40,000 a year.
>



ANSWERS
> 1. The man that is waiting for a job interview is nervous.
> 2. I know the man that got the job.
> 3. The woman that interviewed him is the personnel director.
> 4. He is going to work for a company that is located in San Jose, California.
> 5. He is taking a job that pays $40,000 a year.
>



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