Relative Clause

 

Relative clauses are subordinate clauses that modify nouns.  Because they add information to a noun, they are also called adjective clauses.  For more information about adjective clauses, please refer to the article I wrote – Adjective Clause - 何為形容詞子句?

 

As for this article, what we would like to discuss is if there is any restriction on the number of relative clauses used in a sentence. 

請問條件子句的子句內容有限制多少? 在同一句句子內有數句子句內容可以?

 

Grammatically, it is accurate to have several relative clauses in a sentence.

 

For example:

The largest mammal that I have seen is Walrus, which lives in the seas of Alaska where the weather is below subfreezing.

 

However, it may sometimes seem redundant and the sentence may not flow as well written that way.

 

For example:

 

1. Steve is my colleague, who currently sits on my chair, which is given to me by Mary.

 

=> This sentence is grammatically accurate, but sounds really awkward and redundant.  There are other ways to construct the sentence.

** Steve is my colleague, currently sitting on my chair, given to me by Mary.


2.  JoAnne who is my colleague, who came to visit me yesterday, when I was having my dinner. 
=> Again, this sentence is grammatically accurate, but redundant and awkward to state it that way.  There are other ways to construct the sentence.

** JoAnne, my colleague, came to visit me yesterday during my dinner. 

4. John is a friend of mine, who is also an accountant, lives next door to us.

=> This sentence is grammatically inaccurate because you now have two verbs in a sentence without separating them with conjunction.

** John, a friend of mine, (who is) also an accountant, lives next door to us.

5. Chris Lawrence, who sent me a copy of his passport, which is clear that is false, is a scammer.

=> A better way to construct the sentence would be:

** Chris Lawrence is a scammer, who sent me a copy of his clearly false passport.                

 

 

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