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Orange Level

Lesson Eight

Adjective Clauses

An adjective clause is a clause that describes a word or a group of words in another clause. Adjective clauses are often part of a complex sentence.

Adjective clauses use that, who, whom, and which to begin the clause:

She's the person who gave me the idea.


She's the person that gave me the idea.

In both sentences, the person is described by...

She gave me the idea.

...but use that or who in place of "she."


Here are some examples:

This student who comes from Japan is a very nice person.

The highway that George travels on every day is usually very crowded during rush hour.

George is a man who likes to eat a lot of watermelon.



(If you like this video, you can find more about adjective clauses here.)

To practice the creation of a sentence with an adjective clause, combine these pairs of sentences:

  1. The teacher was not happy.
  2. He found gum under the desk.

The teacher who found gum under the desk was not happy.

Now you practice. I recommend that you write your answers on a piece of paper. Don't look at the answers below until you have finished trying to put these together.

  1. The students are very helpful to each other.
  2. They go to this class.

Answer: ________________________________________________________.

  1. The apples are rotten.
  2. I bought them today.

Answer: ________________________________________________________.

  1. We really like the new car.
  2. We bought it last weekend.

Answer: ________________________________________________________.


  • Answers:

    The students who go to this class are very helpful to each other.
  • The apples that I bought today are rotten.
  • We really like the new car which we bought last weekend.


Click here for additional practice in using adjective clauses.

In the next lesson, we'll learn about adverbial phrases and clauses.

Next: Lesson Nine










