Reduced Relative Clauses

byKenneth Beare
Updated April 23, 2018

Reduced relative clauses refer to the shortening of a relative clause which modifies the
subject of a sentence. Reduced relative clauses modify the subject and not the object of a
sentence.

Relative clauses, also known as adjective clauses, modify nouns much like
adjectives:
The man who works at Costco lives in Seattle.
I gave a book, which was written by Hemingway, to Mary last week.

In above examples, "who works at Costco" modifies--or provides information

about--the "man" who is the subject of the sentence. In the second sentence,
'which was written by Hemingway" modifies the object 'book'. Using a reduced
relative clause we can reduce the first sentence to:

The man working at Costco lives in Seattle.

The second example sentence cannot be reduced because the relative clause
"which was written by Hemingway" modifies an object of the verb 'give.'

Types of Reduced Relative Clauses

Relative clauses can also be reduced to shorter forms if the relative clause
modifies the subject of a sentence. Relative clause reduction refers to removing a
relative pronounto reduce:

 An adjective/person who was happy: happy person

 An adjective phrase/man who was responsible for: man responsible for
 A prepositional phrase/boxes that are under the counter: boxes under the
counter
 A past participle/student that was elected president: student elected
president
 A present participle/people who are working on the report: people working
on the report

Reduce to an Adjective

1. Remove the relative pronoun.

 2. Remove the verb (usually 'be', but also 'seem', 'appear', etc.).
3. Place the adjective used in the relative clause before the modified noun.

Examples:

The children who were happy played until nine in the evening.
Reduced: The happy children played until nine in the evening.

The house, which was beautiful, was sold for $300,000.

Reduced: The beautiful house was sold for $300,000.

Reduce to an Adjective Phrase

1. Remove the relative pronoun.

2. Remove the verb (usually 'be', but also 'seem', 'appear', etc.).
3. Place the adjective phrase after the modified noun.

Examples:

The product, which seemed perfect in many ways, failed to succeed in the
market.
Reduced: The product, perfect in many ways, failed to succeed in the market.

The boy who was pleased by his grades went out with his friends to celebrate.
Reduced: The boy, pleased by his grades, went out with his friends to
celebrate.

Steps to reduce to a Prepositional Phrase

1. Remove the relative pronoun.

2. Remove the verb 'be.'
3. Place the prepositional phrase after the modified noun.

Examples:

The box, which was on the table, was made in Italy.

Reduced: The box on the table was made in Italy.

The woman who was at the meeting spoke about business in Europe.
Reduced: The woman at the meeting spoke about business in Europe.

Reduce to a Past Participle

1. Remove the relative pronoun.

 2. Remove the verb 'be.'
3. Place the past participle before the modified noun.

Examples:

The desk, which was stained, was antique

Reduced: The stained desk was antique.

The man who was elected was very popular.

Reduced: The elected man was very popular.

Reduce to a Past Participle Phrase

1. Remove the relative pronoun.

2. Remove the verb 'be.'
3. Place the past participle phrase after the modified noun.

Examples:

The car, which was purchased in Seattle, was a vintage Mustang

Reduced: The car purchased in Seattle was a vintage Mustang.

The elephant, which was born in captivity, was set free.

Reduced: The elephant born in captivity was set free.

Reduce to a Present Participle

1. Remove the relative pronoun.

2. Remove the verb 'be.'
3. Place the present participle phrase after the modified noun.

Examples:

The professor who is teaching mathematics will leave the university.

Reduced: The professor teaching mathematics will leave the university.

The dog that is lying on the floor won't get up.

Reduced: The dog lying on the floor won't get up.

Some action verbs reduce to the present participle (ing form) especially when the
present tense is used:

1. Remove the relative pronoun.

2. Change the verb to the present participle form.
 3. Place the present participle phrase after the modified noun.

Examples:

The man who lives near my home walks to work every day.
Reduced: The man living near my home walks to work every day.

The girl who attends my school lives at the end of the street.
Reduced: The girl attending my school lives at the end of the street.

How to Reduce Clauses to Phrases in English Sentences

By Robby

If you are new here please read this first.

My last article for English Harmony was about when you can and can’t omit
relative pronouns such as “who” and “that” from sentences. What we
concluded is that you can omit the pronoun when it acts as an object, as in
the sentence below:

The dog (that) Mary is petting has brown fur. (The relative pronoun “that” is
optional here.)

But you cannot omit the pronoun when it acts as a subject, as in this
sentence:

The dog that is eating a biscuit has brown fur.

However, astute reader Juhapekka pointed out that in examples like the above
sentence, you can’t omit only the pronoun, but you canomit the pronoun plus
the form of “to be” (in this case, “is”):

The dog eating a biscuit has brown fur. (This is a well-formed sentence!)

This introduces an entirely new topic in English grammar called clause-to-

phrase reduction. This article will explore clause-to-phrase reduction,
explain how and why it happens, and hopefully make the mysterious world of
English grammar a little bit less confusing.
 What is the difference between a clause and a phrase?

Before we get into reducing clauses into phrases, it’s a good idea to be clear
about what we mean when we say clause and phrase.

Simply put, a clause is a group of related words that contains a subject and a
verb. We’ll be looking in particular at clauses that modify nouns. The
underlined words below all form clauses that modify nouns:

The grammar points that are presented in the article are complicated.

The woman who was riding the subway is late for work.

Clauses are different from phrases, which also modify nouns but do not
contain a subject-verb relationship. Below, I’ll rewrite the above sentences,
using phrases instead of clauses:

The grammar points presented in the article are complicated.

The woman riding the subway is late for work.

Now, you might be asking — hey, can you really do that? Can you really just
omit words from clauses, turn them into phrases, and end up with real
sentences? The answer is a resounding yes: but only in special circumstances.
Let’s see what exactly those circumstances are.

Reducing Clauses to Phrases

At the beginning of this post, I mentioned the difference between subject and
object relative clauses. If that last sentence isn’t crystal-clear to you, I
recommend that you take a look at this article, because it’s important to
understand that concept before we continue.

As stated in the introduction to this article, we’ve previously concluded that

you cannot omit relative pronouns when those pronouns
are subjects; pronouns can be omitted only when they are objects.

However, there is equilibrium everywhere: in sentences that have subject

relative clauses, you can’t omit the relative pronoun, but you can reduce
clauses to phrases. We can do this by omitting the subject pronoun and
the form of “to be” that follows it. Here’s an example:
 The car that is on sale in Germany costs $20,000.

The car on sale in Germany costs $20,000.

The person who is driving the car in Germany is a safe driver.

The person driving the car in Germany is a safe driver.

It’s that simple – you just take away the relative pronoun and the conjugated
form of “to be”, and you’ve got a new, clause-to-phrase-reduced sentence!

Now, you might be asking: What do I do if the relative clause doesn’t contain
the verb “to be”? Great question! Let’s take a look at one of these sentences:

Clause-to-phrase reduction is a process that consists of several steps.

To reduce the underlined clause to a phrase, we do two things: first, we omit

the relative pronoun “that”; second, we change the verb “consist” to its -
ing form. You must do both of these steps in order to end up with a well-
conceived sentence, as the one below:

Clause-to-phrase reduction is a process consisting of several steps.

Note, however, that you can only do this when the relative pronoun acts as a
subject. When the pronoun is an object, you cannot reduce clauses to phrases:

The dog that Mary is petting has brown fur. (This makes sense.)

The dog Mary petting has brown fur. (This does not make sense.)

Now, It’s Your Turn!

We’ve covered a lot of grammatical ground in a short article! If you’re feeling

like a pro at clause-to-phrase reduction, test your skills with an English-
language level test. And to make sure you’ve truly mastered clause-to-phrase
reduction, take a look at the following sentences and try reducing the clauses
to phrases. Leave a comment with your answers!

New York is a city that contains many skyscrapers.

The cat that is drinking water must be very thirsty.

Consumers who look for good deals often go to outlet stores.