Adjective Phrases and Clauses

Adjective phrases and clauses answer the same questions that any other adjective does: "Which?" "Whose?" “What kind?"

ADJECTIVE PHRASES

If a group of words collectively answers any of these questions, but doesn't contain a subject and predicate, then it's a phrase. Adjective phrases can be characterized by the following parts of speech and include any other words or phrases that might modify them:

• an adjective (including interrogative, indefinite, possessive, ordinal, and other determiners and quantifiers)
• an adjective infinitive phrase
• a participial phrase
• an adjective prepositional phrase

Each of these would be diagrammed in the manner of their own part of speech.

Examples

Simple Adjective Phrases

Marjorie has rather fond memories of her time in high school.

Alistair's pedigree makes him very nearly Scottish.*

“Scottish” is an adjective complement for a factitive verb.

Adjective Infinitive Phrases

The right to choose whom we want to love is fundamental.

Lars promised us a meal to remember for the rest of our lives.

Participial Phrases

Thinking only of her child's safety, she wrestled the intruder to the floor.

Prepared carefully according to directions, his recipe should be foolproof.

Adjective Prepositional Phrases

The bowling ball in the closet of our guest bedroom once belonged to my grandfather.

Every child daydreams of being ruler of the known universe.

ADJECTIVE CLAUSES (RELATIVE CLAUSES)

If a group of words containing a subject and verb acts as an adjective, it is an adjective clause. Adjective clauses typically begin with a subject or object relative pronoun:

• that
• what
• who
• whom
• whose* [a possessive adjective and a relative pronoun]
• which

In boxing, it's speed, not size, that wins the match.
Common sense is what protects us from our impulses.
My sister, who is much older than I am, is an engineer.
The man whom I will one day marry must above all else be kind.
She wore a coat whose buttons were made of abalone shell.
I was unconscious for most of the trip to New Zealand, which took us over twenty-one hours.

Note how, in each of these, the entire clause works as an adjective but begins with a relative pronoun. Clauses that begin with Relative Pronouns are called, rather unimaginatively, relative clauses.

Whose

The oddball in this list, ironically, is “whose,” the only word among them that is a true adjective, albeit a possessive one. It cannot stand on its own as a subject or object relative to its antecedent; it must always be paired with a noun it describes: “whose socks”; “whose child”; “whose beliefs” etc. If ever you find yourself using “whose” without a noun, you've committed a homonym error and you probably mean the contraction, “who's.”

“Whose” is also an interrogative pronoun. It starts questions about ownership: “Whose dirty socks are these?” We generally think of “who” as a pronoun used only where people are the antecedent (or creatures and characters whom we give the honorary status of “human”), and “that” as a pronoun used for inanimate and non-human antecedents. “Whose” makes no distinction: it works for all antecedents, regardless of humanity or animus.

Which

“Which” and “that” are frequently confused, treated as though they are interchangeable. Let's make the matter perfectly clear right now: they are not. “That” is used when the antecedent is a specific noun or pronoun. “Which” is used when the antecedent is a noun phrase or clause, or when the antecedent is a nonspecific noun. In the vast majority of cases, you should use a comma to distinguish a relative clause beginning with "which," whereas this is unnecessary with the relative pronoun "that." Here's are a few illustrations of the difference:

I'd like to leave a legacy that is important to me.
I'd like to leave a legacy, which is important to me.

I hated all of the movie that promoted gay stereotypes.
I hated all the movie, which promoted gay stereotypes.

I went to the pool party with a Speed-o that made me uncomfortable.
I went to the pool party with a Speed-o, which made me uncomfortable.

For more information about Relative Pronouns, and the confusion between “which” and “that,” see “Pronouns: This and That.”

DIAGRAMMING RELATIVE CLAUSES

All relative clauses are dependent clauses. In that respect, they're depicted on diagrams exactly the same way that subordinate clauses are depicted. The only difference is that you don't need to put a subordinate conjunction on the dashed diagonal line. More important is that the dashed line correctly link from the antecedent to the relative pronoun, whether it is a subject or an object. Here's what they look like:

We enjoy games that involve role-playing.

Chocolate is what makes life worthwhile.

I am sick of those telemarketers who call during dinner hours.

Miss Elizabeth Bennet married the very man whom she once called prideful.

The man whose house you bought died in your living room.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.