An adjective
clause is a
group of words that describe a noun.
The clause usually begins
with the words who, which, that, whose,
or whom. Here are examples of sentences with adjective clauses:
There are many customers who want to use credit
cards.
This
customer wants an
account which
doesn't require a minimum balance.
The bank whose loan rates
are the lowest will have more customers.
The bank officer whom I
spoke with yesterday called me again.
Look
at
the following list of adjective clauses:
who is used when the noun is a person
which is used when the noun is a thing
that is
used when the noun is a thing or a person
whose is used to show something belongs to a
person or sometimes a
noun
whom is
used in formal English when the noun is a person
Notice that the adjective clauses follow the
nouns they describe. When the adjective
clause describes a noun that is the direct object of the adjective
clause, it
is possible to leave out the words that
or who without changing the meaning.
Here are some examples:
The checking account the customer wanted had no
minumum balance.
The checking account that
the customer wanted had no minimum balance.
The man she saw greeting the
employees was the bank vice-president.
The man who she
saw greeting the
employees was the bank vice-president.
Other
words that can begin adjective clauses are where
and when.
Here are some examples:
This is the office where the
terms of the loan are discussed.
Friday was the last day when the rates were low.
Commas
are used with adjective clauses when the adjective clause
is not necessary to
understand the main
meaning of the sentence. For example:
The bank lobby, which is on
The information about
All of his accounts were at
Citibank, which is one of the world's largest banks.
"which
is one of the world's largest
banks" is extra information
and is not important to the main idea of the
sentence.
The bank which is on
This
means that we are only referring
to a particular bank, only the bank on
Note: that cannot be used when there are commas.
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