Can adjective clauses, which can be confusing for students, ever be easily learned?

As if adjective clauses (also called relative clauses) weren’t complicated enough already, our students also need to learn when to add punctuation. In my experience, some textbooks deal with the punctuation issue much later on (or not at all) in an adjective clause lesson. I prefer to explain it to my students fairly early on before they start practicing doing the wrong thing.

The following are some teaching tips on the punctuation of restrictive and non-restrictive adjective clauses. (And does anyone else get the terms restrictive and non‑restrictive mixed up? I always had to double-check before class!)

Restrictive Adjective Clauses

Restrictive adjective clauses (also known as defining adjective clauses) contain information that is necessary to define the noun. The noun is a general noun such as boy, apple, book, city, etc. A good tip to tell your students is that if the meaning is any, then it’s a general noun (book = any book; I don’t have a specific book in mind).

Because the noun is general, it needs information to specify/define it so that we know which noun the speaker is talking about. The adjective clause, then, is important information that defines the noun, and because it is important, no commas are needed. (Remind students that commas are often used to offset secondary, less important information in English.)

Point out that even though the noun is general, the adjective clause is going to define the noun, so we usually need the article the, not a, with adjective clauses that are defining a subject noun. For an object noun, either article is possible.

Examples

• The boy who is running around the room is my son.
• I met the boy who was running around the room.
• The woman who is wearing the red dress told me the time.
• The apple that I had at lunch was delicious.
• The book that I finished reading yesterday was really interesting.
• I finished reading a book that was really interesting.
• The city that I want to visit the most is Paris.

Non-Restrictive Adjective Clauses

Non-restrictive adjective clauses (also known as non-defining adjective clauses) contain information that is NOT necessary to define the noun (it is simply extra info). The noun is a specific noun such as the proper name of a person, place, or thing, or a noun already defined by a pronoun/adjective/attributive noun, etc. A good tip to tell your students is that if it’s clear which noun the speaker is talking about, then it’s a specific noun (Paris = a specific city; I know which city it is).

Because the noun is specific, it DOESN’T need information to specify/define it because we already know which noun the speaker is talking about. The adjective clause, then, is extra information that doesn’t define the noun, so commas are needed. (Remind students that commas are often used to offset secondary, less important information in English.)

Examples

• My son, who is running around the room, had too much sugar earlier.
• I scolded my son, who was misbehaving in front of my guests.
• Mr. Jones, who is my teacher, has been at this school for 25 years.
• My lunch, which I ate in five minutes, was delicious.
• The Hobbit, which was an excellent book, was made into a movie.
• I finished reading the Hobbit, which was made into a movie.
• Paris, which I visited last year, has a lot of interesting architecture.

Related Practice

• Adjective Clauses – Grammar Practice Worksheets
• Adjective Phrases – Grammar Practice Worksheets
• Relative Clauses – He’s a person who… – Basic Grammar Sentences
• Relative Clauses – Who’s the person who… – Basic Grammar Sentences
• Adjective Clause & Phrase Stories – Grammar Stories
• Relative Pronouns – Formality Scales

Final Note

I plan on writing another blog post or two about which pronouns to use with restrictive/non-restrictive adjective clauses, but I’ll mention one case here because it involves punctuation. Many people follow this rule:

Use that for restrictive adjective clauses and which for non-restrictive adjective clauses. (I.e., use that when there’s no comma and which following a comma.)

Examples

• The book that I finished reading was great.
• My science textbook, which was boring, took me a long time to read.

Note that these rules are very common in American and Canadian English. In the UK, “which” is still accepted in both types of clauses, according to the New Oxford Style Manual. What about other English-speaking countries? My colleague from New Zealand said that they use “that” in restrictive clauses, not “which.” I’d love to hear from other people in the comments section below!