Reduced adjective clauses and appositives:
advanced grammar
What are reduced adjective clauses and appositives in English? Do you know how to use them? If you are unsure, this blog post is for you! Let us know if this was helpful. Remember to sign up for your free first lesson to discuss any questions you might have with your favorite English Fluentella teacher!
What are reduced adjective clauses?
They are exactly the same as adjective clauses, only shorter.
they are very commonly used in native conversations, we use it to save time when speaking.
How to identify them:
Clause VS Reduced Clause
| longer | shorter |
| Pronoun: who/which/that | No pronoun |
| Complete verb | Verb form has to change |
Examples:
My sister is the girl who is on the left.
My sister is the girl on the left.
Rules for reducing:
- You can only reduce a clause with a subject pronoun
- You have to check the verb situation of the adjective clause
→ progressive (be + verb ing)
She is the girl who is standing next to me.
→ prepositional phrase (in/at/on)
She is the girl who is on the left.
→ passive voice (be+past participle)
It is the blue shirt which is worn by the boy.
→ no ‘be’ verb (add an ing to the verb)
She is the girl who talks too much.
She is the girl talking too much.
→ negatives
They are the people who aren’t looking at the camera.
They are the people not looking at the camera.
PRACTICE YOUR REDUCED ADJECTIVE CLAUSES BY LOOKING AT THE IMAGE AND MAKING A SENTENCE TO DESCRIBE IT:
Example: They were the people causing the trouble.
What are appositives?
They come between a set of commas.
They are used to provide additional information of the specific / well known subjects.
How to identify them:
Main subject + , + adjective clause pronoun + be verb + noun phrase + , + be verb + rest of the sentence.
Example: Michelle Obama, who is married to former President Obama, is also an American lawyer and writer.
Using appositives to describe countries:
Choose a country you think people should visit. We are going to write interesting facts about this country to convince people to visit using appositives. Make your own below!
SOUTH AFRICA:
Table Mountain, one of the iconic landmarks of South Africa, is one of the oldest mountains in the world.
CANADA:
Montreal, Canada’s second-largest city with over 4 million inhabitants, is also the second-largest city in the world that has a French-speaking population.
VIETNAM:
The Mekong Delta, which has been voted among the best attractions to visit in 2019 by CondeNast Traveller magazine readers, has amazing waterways that can be explored by boat.
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