Upper-Intermediate ๐Ÿ“ Grammar ยท #169 of 305

Postmodifiers and Reduced Relative Clauses

Reduce clauses for brevity.

Examples

  • the man standing there

Key rules

  • Remove who/which + be: the man (who is) standing there
  • Use -ing for active, -ed for passive
  • To-infinitive after first, last, only
  • Not for non-defining clauses with commas

Common mistakes

  • The book writing by him โ†’ The book written by him
  • The only person know โ†’ The only person to know
๐Ÿ’ก Tip: Remove relative pronoun and be.

Related Upper-Intermediate topics

See all Upper-Intermediate grammar lessons โ†’