relative clause

American  

noun

• relative clauses
  plural

1. a subordinate clause introduced by a relative pronoun, adjective, or adverb, either expressed or deleted, especially such a clause modifying an antecedent, as who saw you in He's the man who saw you or (that ) I wrote in Here's the letter (that ) I wrote.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• relative clauses
  plural

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

relative clause

The linguists soon became suspicious about his Taensa grammar: The verbs seemed too regular, the relative clause structure too European.

From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2019

“Which” can be either subjective or objective case — it is used for both the subject and the object of a relative clause.

From New York Times ● Mar. 10, 2015

These two modifying constructions — a participle phrase and a relative clause — are not parallel and so should not be linked by “and.”

From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2014

A nonrestrictive relative clause is set off by commas, dashes or parentheses, as in "The pair of shoes, which cost five thousand dollars, was hideous."

From The Guardian ● Aug. 15, 2014

The position of the gap indicates the role that the modified phrase played in the deep structure; to understand the relative clause, we mentally fill it back in.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

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