Grammar Skills – Adjective Clause
Finite verbs vs Non-finite verbs
Ø Finite verbs: [ show tense]
ü Find / finds / found / will found / has found / is found / was found / will be found / been found
Ø Non-finite verbs: [ not show tense]
ü To find / finding / to be found
E.g.: Gerund / infinitive / participle
Relative pronouns
Ø Who / whom / which / whose / when / where / that
Defining & Non-defining relative clause
Ø Defining: No[ , ] important info no name
Ø Non-defining: Have[ , ] Additional info have name
Defining
ü In fact, China is suffering a glut of college graduates who can’t find appropriate jobs, and
a shortage of blue-collar workers.
ü Children who hate chocolate are uncommon.
ü They live in a house whose roof is full of holes.
ü An elephant is an animal that lives in hot countries.
ü Let's go to a country where the sun always shines.
ü The reason why I came here today is not important.
Non-defining
ü My grandmother, who is dead now, came from the North of England.
ü My friend John, who went to the same school as me, has just written a best-selling novel.
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Analysis [ Relative pronouns]
Who [ ]
Ø Original sentences: One western expat helps Chinese students ……
Ø Changed sentence: One western expat [ who helps Chinese students enter Western colleges] tells
the story of a Chinese student [ who lived with an English host family in Britain].
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Whom [ ]
Ø Original sentence: We met the man…
Ø Changed sentence: The man [whom we met last night] become famous overnight.
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Whose [ ]
They live in a house [whose roof is full of holes].
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Which [ ]
1. [ ]
Ø First, out company needs to be prepared for, and to live with, Asian dynamism, competition and
capitalism, [which will dominate global markets].
Ø Her car, [which was very old], broke down after just five miles.
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2. [ ]
Ø Nowadays, many people are obsessed with physical beauty, [ which is worrying].
Ø The government has decided to remove PE lessons, [ which upsets many students in the territory].
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That [ ]
= can substitute [ Who / which / whom] in defining clause
Exception: non-defining & Prep + which / whom
The rote learning [ that she stresses at home] might work for her daughters because, outside the house,
they are encouraged to think independently.
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IMPORTANT
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Preposition + whom / which
ü The topic about which we are talking is debatable.
ü This is the bedroom in which he was murdered.
ü A Taiwanese naturalist, with whom I worked closely in National Geographic, discovered this
special creature
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Relative pronouns that can be omitted
ü Who / which / that / whom
Ø Original sentence: The music which/that we listened to last night was great
Ø Changed sentence: The music we listened to last night was great
Ø The book I read was interesting.
Ø Everything we do is meaningful.
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Special case
ü Last night the orchestra played three symphonies, one of which was Beethoven’s Seventh.
ü The government has decided to implement the policy, the effectiveness of which remains in doubt.
Wrong sentence:
The government has decided to implement the policy, the effectiveness of it remains in doubt.
Original sentence:
The government has decided to implement the policy. The effectiveness of it remains in doubt.
The government has decided to implement the policy and the effectiveness of it remains in doubt.
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