The relative pronoun that replaces the noun phrase the book, which is the direct object of the clause in the second sentence. In the third sentence, the adjective clause is that you stole.

The book that you stole belongs to the library.

Consider, for example, the following sentences: To form an adjective clause, a relative pronoun replaces a word, phrase, or clause within another clause. (adjunct adverbial relative pronoun)įor more information about relative pronouns, see The English Relative Pronoun System.

Exciting events never happen in the small town where I lived as a child.

The neighbor whose baby my mother watches works nights at the library.

Are you going to the party for which I baked a cake? (prepositional complement relative pronoun).

The woman that the man bought flowers works at my office.The position that you appointed me comes with a nice pay raise.The soup that my dog devoured tasted too spicy.The cat that eats special food has health problems.Syntactic functions are grammatical functions that relate to other grammatical functions within the syntax, or word order, of a sentence. The seven syntactic functions that relative pronouns perform in English grammar are: In addition to functioning as subordinators, relative pronouns also perform syntactic functions within adjective clauses.

The nine relative pronouns in English grammar are: Relative pronouns are both a type of pronoun that take the place of another word, phrase, or clause and a type of subordinating conjunction that introduce adjective, or relative, clauses. Some grammars use the term relative clause for adjectives clauses.Ĭonjunctions are “words that link words, phrases, and clauses.” A subordinating conjunction is a conjunction that introduces a subordinate or dependent clause. Similar to the adjective and adjective phrase in grammatical function, an adjective clause is a dependent or subordinate clause that consists of a subordinating conjunction, specifically a relative pronoun, followed by a clause and that performs an adjectival function.

What are adjective clauses