When is the Subject NOT the Subject

Be prepared for class.  That is the number one rule for a teacher (and a student).  However, a second, very important rule is: Be prepared to throw your lesson plan out the window.  (For students, the second most important rule is: Ask questions.)

I was reminded of this last night when I got a very interesting question from a former student--let’s call him DK--via my Facebook grammar forum, which I’ll answer later in this blog.  Some of my all-time favorite lessons have been totally improvised and started with one great question that led to another question, and another, and another.  It’s like a bunch of musicians sitting down and jamming.  (See my blog Keep the Music in the Classroom.)

DK’s question was about quantifiers and whether a certain quantifier was considered singular or plural, to which I confidently replied “Plural.”  Then another former student--let’s call him KF--jumped in and said, “Wait a minute.  Shouldn’t it be singular?”  Unfortunately I couldn’t use my standard answer, which is “No, because I’m bigger than you,” to prove my point because KF also provided a link to an answer that backed up his position, sort of.  (To imagine my immediate reaction, Imagine the classic bit on Seinfeld.  “Newman!”)  So I actually had to do some thinking.  Here are the four conclusions I made.

First, I knew I should have followed my first instinct and denied KF entry into the grammar group.  Nothing can mess up a teacher like a smart kid who asks really good questions and can back them up.

Second, I am really old.  I first began teaching KF when he was in fifth grade and visiting the U.S. from Japan.  Now he is a big, bad senior ready to take on the world.

Third, somewhere along the way, KF has gotten a very good education.  Hopefully I had a little to do with that.  To all of my students, whom I will force to read this blog entry, never be afraid to ask questions.  However, make sure you can back them up.

Fourth, sorry KF.  I’m right.  And not just because I’m bigger than you.

So anyway, DK’s specific question was Is the phrase a number of scientists singular or plural?  My immediate answer was singular because a number obviously is one group.  I then added an example sentence to demonstrate my genius.  A number of scientists have suggested...  Whoops.  That’s plural.  Now I actually have to think.  (This is called native-speaker intuition.  As a native speaker, you automatically know when something sounds correct or not.  You just don’t necessarily know why.)

Here’s the final answer I came up with.

In order to figure this out, you have to go back to quantifiers and their rules/patterns.  (I’ll try to write a detailed blog entry on this soon.)  The short explanation is as follows.

A quantifier is any word that answers the questions how much or how many.  For example: A lot of students were late for school today because of traffic.  A lot of is a quantifier because it answers the question How many students...?  Another example is Skyler spilled some milk on the table, which answers the question How much milk...?

Furthermore, quantifiers can be used three different ways.  The two patterns that are important here are quantifier + noun and quantifier + of + noun phrase.

• Most Americans live in big cities.
• Most of my friends live in big cities.

In the first example, Americans is the subject of the clause, but in the second, most is the subject and friends is the object of the preposition of.  Therefore, if you change most to one, the subject becomes plural.

• Most of my friends are married.
• One of my best friends is a doctor.

The question now is this.  Is the quantifier in the example a number or a number of?  There are several quantifiers that I call phrasal quantifiers.  The most common are a lot of and a couple of.  Look at these examples.

• I saw a lot of hikers on the trail today.
• I bought a couple of t-shirts at the concert.
• Most of my friends are married.

Now, change the quantifiers in these sentences to regular numbers, which are also quantifiers.

• I saw fifty hikers on the trail today.
• I bought two t-shirts at the concert.
• Seven of my friends are married.

As you can see, the first two sentences follow the pattern quantifier + noun and the third sentence follows the pattern quantifier + of + noun phrase.  Therefore, the direct objects of the first two sentences are hikers and t-shirts and the quantifiers are adjectives.  Of is part of the phrasal quantifiers a lot of and a couple of  In the last sentence, though, the quantifier seven is the subject and of is a preposition.

Now, apply this test to the question.  Again, is the quantifier in this sentence a number of or a number?  What happens when you substitute another quantifier?  Which is correct, a number of scientists have suggested or a number of scientists has suggested?  Well, which of these new sentences is correct?

• Many scientists have suggested...
• Many of scientists has agreed...

To me, clearly the first sentence is correct.  A number of is the quantifier and scientists is the subject.  Consequently, the expression a number of scientists is plural.

This is probably way more information than you ever wanted, but this is the process I used to answer DK’s question.  If you have questions like this and would like to join Mr. K’s Grammar World on Facebook, please click on this link.

Nouns: The Building Blocks of Language

  Just like a medical student begins her training studying the bones and muscles of the human body, all serious language students should start with parts of speech.  And the study of parts of speech should begin with nouns.
  Basically, a noun is a word that refers to a person, place or thing.  Many people now divide things into two sub-groups: concrete nouns and abstract nouns.  Concrete nouns are things you can feel or touch or smell or taste.  These things have mass and substance.  You can pick them up and carry them around.  (Fine.  You can’t pick up or carry around an airplane, but it’s still a concrete noun.  You can certainly touch it.)  Conversely, an abstract noun is something you cannot touch or pick up or carry.  Abstract nouns are ideas, emotions and ideals.  For example, bravery, happiness and memory are all abstract nouns.  Things can also be divided into two other groups: countable and uncountable.  (See Death of the Countable Noun for more explanation.)  The trickiest group of nouns are called compound nouns.  They are LOTS of fun.
  You can identify parts of speech by characteristics that most, and sometimes all, words of a certain part of speech share.  I call these “markers.”  You can identify nouns by some basic markers that most nouns have.  First, most nouns have two forms: singular and plural*.  To make the plural form of a regular noun, you simply add an ~s or ~es to the end of the word.  For example:

• one dog, two dogs
• one ticket, three tickets
• one peach, two peaches

        The plural ~s is a good way to identify a noun.  If you have a word that seems to be a singular noun, try adding the ~s.  If the word looks like a plural noun, try taking the ~s away.  Do you still have a real word?
  This rule doesn’t always work though.  Some nouns are irregular, which means the plural form is very different from the singular form.  Or the plural form is the same as the singular form.  For example:

• one person, two people
• one tooth, two teeth
• one fish, two fish

        Also, uncountable nouns don’t have a plural form at all.  (One information, two informations?) That’s why they’re uncountable.  Finally, verbs in the third person singular form also have an ~s at the end.  (I like; she likes) Like is obviously not a noun.  That being said, the plural ~s rule is a good noun marker.
  A second excellent noun marker is capital letters.  Basically, if a word is capitalized, it’s a noun.  Capitalized nouns are also known as proper nouns.  (That’s just a fancy way of saying names.)  If two or three words are connected and all of them are capitalized, they are all a part of the same name.  Take the following group of words as an example.  If you have the simple phrase New York’s best pizza, only pizza is a noun and best is an adjective describing the pizza.  On the other hand New York’s Best Pizza altogether is one long noun that includes New York’s because all of the words are capitalized.  (This is probably the name of a restaurant in Kansas.)
  There are two exceptions to the capitalization rule.  First, and quite obviously, the first word of a sentence is always capitalized in English, but it is not always a noun.  Second, sometimes adjectives are capitalized.  Some proper nouns have an adjective form that is different.  For example:

• China, Chinese
• Germany, German
• Thailand, Thai

  Unfortunately, this is not always the case.  Very often, the noun form and the adjective form of proper nouns is the same.  For example, Philly is the nickname of Philadelphia, the largest city in Pennsylvania.  One of the greatest foods ever created is the Philly cheesesteak.**  By itself, Philly is obviously a noun, but when describing this wonderful food of the gods, Philly is an adjective describing the cheesesteak.  This one can be very confusing to students.  The only advice that I have is to chunk up the sentence and make sure the last word of a chunk is the capitalized word.  If the capitalized word is the last word, it’s a noun.  However, if ANYTHING comes after the capitalized word in the chunk, the capitalized word is an adjective.  (See the blog entry on Chunky Language for a more detailed explanation.)
  Another guaranteed marker for a noun is the apostrophe s ( ‘s )***.  The ‘s turns a regular old noun into a possessive noun that shows the relationship (ownership) between two nouns, usually a person and a thing or place.  Both the word with the ‘s and the last word of the chunk must be nouns.

• the school’s new gym
• Jim’s old job
• the car’s air-conditioner

        Related to ‘s is the preposition of.  Very, very often, but not always, the word that comes before of, along with the word after of, is a noun.  For example.

• the top of the stairs
• the middle of the night
• most of the food

  Finally, there are several noun markers that come at the beginning of a chunk.  This specific kind of chunk is called a noun phrase.  A noun phrase is a group of words that ends with a noun and includes all of the words connected in front of the noun, like adjectives.  Probably the most common noun markers are a(n) and the.  Guaranteed, if you see one of these words, there is a noun at the end of the chunk.  For example:

• the homework assignment
• a fluffy, white dog
• an enormous, pink elephant
• the seemingly impossible task

  The last word in all of these groups must be a noun.  There are a couple of common errors illustrated here.  In the first chunk, very often students will identify homework as the noun, but in this case, it’s an adjective.  Make sure you go completely to the end of the chunk.  Don’t stop at the first word that looks like a noun.  The second common error is thinking that fluffy and enormous are nouns.  This is because students think that commas always come at the end of the chunk.  This is normally true, but sometimes commas replace the conjunction and and connect ideas instead of separating them.
  The second group of noun markers also guarantees that a noun is at the end of the chunk.  Anytime you see an adjective pronoun like my, her, their, etc., a noun is close by.  For example:.89+

• his favorite band
• our new house
• your final exams
• its pristine beaches

  The final group of noun markers is not quite as guaranteed. There is a group of pronouns called demonstrative pronouns.  Basically, they are this, that, these and those.  Just like the adjective pronouns above, this, that, these and those are often at the beginning of a noun phrase, like:

• this car
• these black shoes
• that noisy monkey
• those wooden puzzles

  Just like the other markers, if a demonstrative pronoun comes at the beginning of a chunk, the last word of the chunk is a noun.  However, they can also be used alone, so there isn’t always a noun after them.  Also, they can be followed by one or ones, which are pronouns.

• That was delicious.
• I think I’ll get this one.
• Those belong to Kyra.

  By following these rules and looking for the noun markers, you should be able to find any noun in any sentence.  However, nothing comes easily.  Like anything else, it will take some time and practice.  But it is well worth the effort.  It’s a valuable skill to have.  Trust me.


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          *Singular means one.  Plural generally means two or more.  However, the tricky part of this is zero (0).  Even though it is less than one, zero nouns need the plural form.

• one person   /  one book
• two people   /   two books
• no people   /   no books

        **The absolute best cheesesteak I have ever had was from a place in Gettysburg, where I went to college for two years, called Robby's Pizza.  After I transferred to a college in Hawaii, whenever I was back in Pennsylvania, I would drive over an hour back to G-burg just for a Robby's cheesesteak.  One of the saddest days of my life was the day I went back and saw that Robby's had closed.  I have searched and searched for a cheesesteak as good and came close once in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, but the search continues.  If I can get the recipe for a Robby's, I'll be a rich, rich man.  Best sandwich in the world. 

Parts of Speech: Why Should We Care?

          The human body is made up of many different, disgusting parts. The most disgusting things in a baby’s body regularly end up in its diaper.  (Yes, Skyler.  I’m talking about your diapers.)  The most important part of the body is the skeleton.  Without the skeleton, we would all just be blobs of goo sliding along like snails.  The skeleton is made up of four basic parts: bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments.  (Sorry, scientists.  I know I’m over-simplifying.)  The bones create structure, muscles allow us to move, ligaments hold two bones together and tendons connect bones to muscle.
          So what?
          There are so many cool similarities between our bodies and language.  Verbs are the muscles of language.  Verbs give the motion.  And the brain is the biggest muscle of all.  Ligaments are like conjunctions, connecting clauses with nouns and verbs together. Tendons are like prepositions, connecting a noun phrase to a clause.  The fundamental building blocks of language, though, are the nouns.  Like the bones of a skeleton, nouns give a sentence its structure.
          So why should we care about parts of speech?
          The simplest and most important answer is, “For reading.”  The quickest way to learn vocabulary is to read.  From the day you begin learning a foreign language, you should begin reading.  However, too often, students make reading painfully slow by stopping every two or three words to check a dictionary, which is not a good idea.  I am pretty much a self-taught Japanese speaker.  I never took formal classes and I stopped self-study from textbooks over fifteen years ago.  However, my Japanese is pretty good and it has improved over the years.  During my studies, I have used a Japanese-English dictionary maybe ten times and I haven’t even looked at one in over twenty years.  Sometimes being lazy is a good thing.
          So what’s the point?
          Sorry.  I got excited.  To learn a language, you need two things: vocabulary and grammar.  Without a large vocabulary, knowing the most beautiful grammatical structures is useless.  The best way to learn vocabulary is to learn how to guess the meaning from context.  To guess the meaning, the first thing you need to know is the word’s part of speech.  Once you understand parts of speech, you can look at any word in any sentence in any book written in the English language and identify its part of speech within a few seconds.  (This skill by itself will probably never earn you any money unless you work for a really lame carnival.  “Ladies and Gentlemen.  The Amazing Grammario will now tell you the part of speech of any word you can think of.”)
          So how did this help your Japanese improve?
          To be honest, it’s hard to say exactly how this happened.  However, I definitely see a parallel between my interest and understanding of English grammar and my Japanese ability.  I think my success in Japanese has come from my experience as a teacher.  I saw what worked for my students and what didn’t.  I saw where my students struggled in English and how I helped them figure out difficult language structures.  In other words, I try to practice what I preach.  I have learned Japanese they way I hope my students learn English.
          So how has knowledge of parts of speech helped you?
          Well, it certainly didn’t help me read Japanese better because I’m basically illiterate in Japanese.  I can read hiragana and katakana fairly well and I know enough kanji to get around.  However, I probably couldn’t read a second-grade textbook.  What I can do is isolate important parts of language I hear (nouns and verbs) and ignore the less important ones (adjectives and adverbs).  I know which words are more important, which words I need to figure out.  Second, when I learn one word, like a noun, I can fairly easily learn the verb, adjective and adverb forms and, more importantly, USE THEM CORRECTLY.  I almost never use a noun when I should use a verb; I can use make adverbs from adjectives and use them correctly.  I use complete phrases and clauses and don’t forget connecting words.  I might not use the correct connecting word, but one is in a place where it’s needed.  I don’t have an impressive vocabulary, but I know how to use the vocabulary I have learned.
          And this is all I ask of my students.  Know the difference between parts of speech and how to use them, make sure your statements are complete and make sure you have connecting words where you need them.  Of course there will be mistakes.  But the mistakes will be smaller mistakes that people can figure out and still understand what you are trying to say.  There will be very few global errors, errors that make understanding very difficult.
          If you are still not convinced that this is important, how about this argument?  I guarantee that understanding parts of speech will greatly improve scores on the SAT and TOEFL tests.
          Now you’re paying attention, aren’t you.

Musicians Make the Best Language Learners

Throughout my 22-year teaching career, I have taught many wonderful students with loads of ability.  My all-time favorite student was a twelve-year-old girl I taught early in my career.  The first day she attended class, she was so nervous, she was almost shaking.  She had just started junior high school, which meant she had just started learning English.  At the beginning of the lesson, as I was asking simple warm-up questions to each student, I didn’t want to leave her out, so I asked her a simple one.  “How old are you?”  After I repeated the question several times and after her regular Japanese teacher gave her several prompts, she slowly began to...CRY.  She eventually whispered an answer through her tears, but the whole situation just overwhelmed her.  (I’m sure my being a 6-foot, 215-pound–at the time--gaijin didn’t help.)


But she didn’t give up.  From that day forward, I don’t think she missed a lesson.  (They were voluntary special lessons that were offered for free by a cram school teacher on Saturdays.)  What makes her stick out in my memory, however, was how disciplined she was.  In a very short time, she became one of the best speakers I’ve ever taught.  She wasn’t chattering like a monkey or discussing Shakespeare.  What made her the best was she tried so hard to use everything she had learned.  When she began to speak, she used a slow, even pace and rarely paused or broke rhythm in the middle of a statement.  She was precise and deliberate and she self-corrected.  She couldn’t say a lot, but what she said was so well-said with so few errors.  After a few months (six, maybe?), her family moved away and she was unable to continue attending lessons.  For the life of me, I can’t remember her name and I would dearly love to see how she has progressed over the years.  I’ll bet she became an amazing English speaker.


I’ll be she was a musician.


Why are musicians also such good language learners?  There are two traits that both need.  The first, and most obvious, is that musicians have good ears.  This is very important for listening and pronunciation.  Musicians pick up the rhythm of language more quickly, can distinguish words more clearly and can mimic sounds better.  (That’s my hypothesis.  I’m pretty good at these things and I was a decent musician back in the day.)  Also, musicians sound more natural than most second-language learners, especially singers.  (In my new job, I’d like to design a speaking/pronunciation course in conjunction with a voice teacher.)  A musical ear is a huge advantage when you learn a language.


However, much more important than an ear is DISCIPLINE.  I suppose there are a few mythical geniuses out there who can sit down at a piano when they are two and within a short time begin playing Mozart piano concertos.  Must be nice.  For the rest of us, though, it’s a lot of long, boring practice sessions running scales and squeaking out Mary Had a Little Lamb.  (The people who deserve the most credit are the neighbors who didn’t call the police to report cat abuse during little Susie’s violin practice.)  For months, the noise that came from my trombone probably sounded more like a flatulent hippo than music.


That’s why so many would-be musicians give up.  It’s too hard.  It’s boring.  It’s frustrating.  They’d rather be playing video games.  “I still don’t sound like Eddie Van Halen and I’ve been practicing for two whole months.  I quit.”  But some make it.  Some put in the hours of drudgery and make it through THE WALL.  They persevere to the day when suddenly they realize “Hey.  I’m getting pretty good.  This is FUN!”  That’s when they become real musicians.  They WANT to go home and practice.  They ENJOY getting up in front of their friends and family to perform.  They LOVE to sit down and jam with other musicians.  The long practice sessions and rehearsals are like a game.  Their mother doesn’t have to push them anymore.  They push themselves.


Learning a language is exactly the same.  Practicing grammar patterns is the same as practicing scales.  An SVO clause equals the C scale.  Pronouncing a second language well is equivalent to getting a beautiful tone from an instrument.  Those horrible hours practicing the clarinet after school are my grammar class.  Your mother, who pushed and forced, who scolded and praised, who wouldn’t let you give up?  That’s me.


Why do musicians spend so much time playing scales?  Even at the highest levels, concert oboists begin warming up with scales.  This is to develop and later, to turn on muscle memory.  A drummer doesn’t think about what they are going to do on their kit.  They just turn off their brains and let their hands and feet fly.  (That’s right.  I just said drummers don’t use their brains.  Have you ever seen Animal from the Muppets?)  When you speak a language, you have similar muscle memory, only I call it grammar memory.


When you speak (or listen), there are two elements: grammar and information.  When you speak your first language, you don’t really stop and think about grammar.  It just comes out naturally.  Therefore, you can focus on communicating your ideas.  On the other hand, when you speak a second language, the grammar is not automatic.  Along with WHAT you want to say, you have to slow down to think of HOW you are going to say it.  This slows down the process and often causes a breakdown.  “It’s too hard.”  But the more you practice, especially basic grammar, the stronger your grammar memory gets, the more smoothly you can communicate and the more confident you feel.  Some people call this “thinking in another language.”  Musicians are good at this.  They already think musically.


Another part of musical discipline is practicing until it’s perfect.  A piano player getting ready for a recital will play the same piece over and over and over again.  They will isolate a part of the song that is particularly troubling and practice that one part until their fingers remember.  They will not accept mistakes.  The concept of “good enough” doesn’t exist.  It’s either perfect or it’s wrong.


Developing your grammar memory is very similar, with a couple of differences.  Language has patterns.  A comparative sentence like “I am smarter than my brother” follows a general pattern that needs to be practiced again and again.  However, unlike music, practicing the exact same sentence over and over doesn’t help.  You need to add your imagination to the pattern.  This is where jazz musicians have an advantage.


I do not mean to say that only musicians can learn a language well.  Nor do I mean that non-musicians don’t have skills that will help them.  Anyone can learn a language if they put in the time and the effort.  An athlete brings their own type of discipline to the language classroom.  So does a scientist.  Visual artists are very often beautiful writers even when their English is still at a basic lever. (You have to read through the mistakes.)  I still say that musicians (and mathematicians) have the most crossover.  Music and language complement each other very well.

A Reduced Clause is Not a Skinny Santa (Part II: Weird Adjective Clauses)

In Part I, I described how most adjective clauses are reduced.  This is very important information, but kind of boring.  Now I’d like to show you some of the weird, wacky, wonderful ways to use reduced adjective clauses.  You’ll see them a lot when you read, especially in literature, but kids, don’t try these at home.  (Professional writer - closed course.)


This first one is pretty vanilla, but I realized I didn’t give any examples of reduced non-defining clauses.  I’m sure you were tossing and turning all night last night worrying about this.

• In the following days, Magellan, inflamed with biblical fervor, destroyed other idols arrayed along the shore, and incited the agitated islanders to follow his example.  (Over the Edge of the Earth)

This one actually has two reduced adjective clauses.  (Can you find them?  No peeking.)  The first one is the non-defining clause.  In its full glory, the clause would read Magellan, who was inflamed with....  It is a non-defining clause because Magellan is a proper noun (capitalized name).  The second one is idols that were arrayed....  This one is a defining clause (without commas) because idols is a general, non-specific noun.


Here is another non-defining clause with a non-action verb that has been changed to a gerund.

• Phil and Mac, realizing that Louie was going to get his head ripped off, grabbed the oars and bumped the sharks away while Louie splashed about, trying to drown the lice.  (Unbroken)

The full version of the adjective clause would be Phil and Mac, who realized that....  Again, nothing spectacular, but a couple of extra examples never hurt.  One interesting thing that I’ve found in doing this “research” over the past year or so is that every writer has their own grammatical tendencies.  One writer will use tons of gerund phrases while another will use very few.  One writer reduces everything while another rarely does.  Over the Edge of the Earth has lots and lots of appositives and adjective clauses while Unbroken has many more noun clauses.  (Maybe I’m the only one nerdy enough to notice or care about this.)


One of the more interesting “discoveries” I made while looking at all of these sentences was that not all adjective clauses come directly after the noun they modify.  For example:

• Increasingly desperate to find the strait, Magellan scrutinized every inlet, hoping it might contain a hidden channel leading inland...  (Over the Edge of the Earth)

This sentence begins with the adjective desperate, which seems strange at first glance.  This is actually a reduced SVC clause that describes Magellan’s feelings.  The original pre-reduction sentence would read:

• Magellan, who was increasingly desperate to find the strait, scrutinized every inlet...

In the original form, the action scrutinized, which is most important, is being interrupted by the emotion desperate.  By fronting desperate, the author is setting the mood of the sentence and letting the action flow more smoothly, without interruption.  (BTW - Did you notice the second reduced clause in the original sentence?  Hoping it might contain a hidden channel that led inland...)


Another interesting type, which I discussed in Part I, is putting an adjective AFTER a noun rather than in front of the noun, which is far more common.  One simple example is the adjective after an indefinite pronoun.

• I feel like having something spicy for dinner.

In this extremely simple example, the adjective spicy, which started in the adjective clause that is spicy, must go after something because usually you cannot put an adjective in front of a pronoun.  But why would you do this with nouns?  One reason is simply literary style.  The author just likes the sound of it.  It works in literature, but I don’t recommend it for formal academic or business writing.  The second reason is shown in this sentence.

• The slave labor at Naoetsu was the kind of work that swallowed men’s souls, but the prisoners found ways to score little victories so essential to their physical and emotional survival.  (Unbroken)

The phrase could have been written as essential little victories.  However, the information about physical and emotional survival is extremely important.  If the author put essential in front of victories, he would not have been able to include this information.  In order to include the infinitive phrase, the adjective had to be put after the noun as a reduced adjective clause.


Finally, here’s an example that, after a LOT of head scratching, I think I’ve finally figured out.

• ...the ill will between Spain and Portugal led to rumors that the lives of the Portuguese co-commanders were in danger.  (Over the Edge of the Earth)

At first glance, it seems pretty straightforward.  The adjective clause begins with rumors that.  But is it really an adjective clause?  The answer is YES and NO.  The first rule of adjective clauses is that the relative pronoun (who, which, that, etc.) has the same meaning as the noun that it follows.  For example.

• the dress that my wife is wearing (that = dress)
• the students who sit in the back of the room (who = students)

However, in this case, does that mean rumor?  If you take the entire clause out of the sentence, without that, this is what you are left with.

• The lives of the Portuguese co-commanders were in danger.

Nothing seems to be missing.  Now, try the same thing with the simple adjective clauses I wrote

• My wife is wearing
• sit in the back of the room

Clearly something is missing in these.  Furthermore, how could you add the word rumor to the clause about the co-commanders?  You can’t.  So what in blazes is going on?  This is what I’ve discovered.


Is the clause, as written, an adjective clause?  No.  It’s a NOUN CLAUSE.  You could rewrite this sentence this way: They heard that the lives of the Portuguese co-commanders were in danger.  Clearly in this sentence, it is a noun clause because it comes after the verb heard.  However, it is also a reduced SVC adjective clause.  When you put the reduced words back into the clause, this is what you get.

• ...the ill will between Spain and Portugal led to rumors, which were that the lives of the Portuguese co-commanders were in danger.

In other words, the rumors were that their lives were in danger.  The complement of this clause is a noun clause.  In the immortal words of Gus Portokalos, “There you go.”  Here are some other examples of this structure that I have found.

• [Magellan] agreed to free Cartagena on condition that Mendoza confine him aboard Victoria.  (Over the Edge of the Earth)
• Despite the many indications that they had found nothing but a large river...  (Over the Edge of the Earth)
• ...[Louie] had been filled with the rushing fear that he would lose her.  (Unbroken)
• ...citizens...were relentlessly indoctrinated with the lesson that to be captured in war was intolerably shameful.  (Unbroken)

Pretty cool, dontcha think?  In conclusion, reduced adjective clauses are like dogs.  (Huh?)  They come in many shapes and sizes and you see them everywhere, but they all come from the same common ancestor.  (The wolf.  Get it?)

A Reduced Clause is Not a Skinny Santa (Part I: Adjective Clauses)

Isn’t studying a language fun?  The first exposure to “reality” is the best part.  High school students all over the U.S. study Spanish for one, two or even three years and then, during Spring Break their senior year, they go on a class trip to Mexico to actually use their Spanish for the first time.  And they can’t understand a bloody word.  Have you ever noticed that “natives” never speak like a textbook?


My moment came during my first year in Japan.  I had been studying from a textbook on my own and was slowly starting to figure some stuff out.  For example, if you want to offer tea to someone, you say “Anata wa o-cha nomimasu ka?”  By putting ka on the end, you make it a question and masu at the end of the verb makes if very polite.  “Would you like to drink some tea?” How lovely!  That’s why, when the middle-aged OL in the teacher’s lounge kept saying to me “O-cha nomu,” I thought she was telling me that she was going to have some tea.  I started to get confused when she repeated this for the fourth time.  Suddenly, it dawned on me!  She was asking ME if I wanted some tea.  Huh?  Where’s the ka?  (This would be similar to an American asking a basic English speaker “Want some coffee?”  Huh?)  My confusion was caused because I didn’t realize she was reducing the formal question that I had learned.


A reduced clause is a clause that has had unnecessary or understood words left out.  For example, you can shorten Before I go to bed, I brush my teeth to Before going to bed... because the subject of both clauses is I.  This is an example of a reduced adverb clause.  There are tons of reductions in English, but the good people at Educational Testing Services (ETS), also known as the wonderful company that makes the SAT test, just loves putting reduced adjective clauses on the TOEFL test, which they have also generously blessed us with.  My guess is that more than 10% of questions on Part II of the TOEFL test relate to reduced adjective clauses.  Learning to recognize them is a good step toward improving your score.


What are the most common ways to reduce an adjective clause?


By far the most common reduced adjective clauses are defining*, object** clauses.  They are also the easiest to reduce.  Look at the following examples.

• I forgot to bring the lunch that I made last night.
• Our son introduced us to the girl who he has been dating.
• I will never forget the day when my son was born.
• Is there somewhere where I can store my luggage for a few hours?

All you have to do is remove the relative pronoun.  (BTW - in informal English, that can almost always be used instead of who, when and where.)

• I forgot to bring the lunch I made last night.
• Our son introduced us to the girl he has been dating.
• I will never forget the days my sons were born.
• Is there somewhere I can store my luggage for a few hours?

The easiest way to identify these reduced clauses is to look for two nouns that are not separated by a comma next to each other.  These are similar to appositives, which are also reduced adjective clauses, but they are quite different.*** These are also the easiest reduced clauses for second-language learners to write.


The second most common reduced adjective clause comes from a defining subject clause that also has a form of the be verb in it.  This includes SVC clauses, continuous verbs (be doing) and passive verbs (be done).

• My wife made a dinner that was worthy of a king.  (SVC)
• The children who are playing in the pool are making a lot of noise.  (continuous)
• Who owns the car that is parked illegally?  (passive)

Just like the other reduced clauses, you start by eliminating the relative pronoun.  However, you must also eliminate the be verb.  You don’t have to do anything to the main verbs, though.

• My wife made a dinner worthy of a king.
• The children playing in the pool are making a lot of noise.
• Who owns the car parked illegally?

The third main type of reduced adjective clause is a little trickier.  How do you reduce a clause that doesn’t have a be verb?  The answer is: Carefully.

• A s’more is a camping favorite that consists of chocolate, marshmallow and graham crackers.
• Anyone who takes this class next year will have to buy the new version of the textbook.

Just like all the others, you start by eliminating the relative pronoun.  However, you can’t just leave the verb as it is.  Otherwise, it will look like a main clause.  (You will have two main verbs but no connecting word.)  The second step is to change the main verb of the adjective clause to a gerund.  (This looks very similar to a reduced continuous tense clause.)

• A s’more is a camping favorite consisting of chocolate, marshmallow and graham crackers.
• Anyone taking this class next year will have to buy the new version of the textbook.

Voila!  There you have it.  These are the three ways I have found to reduce an adjective clause.  Most reduced clauses are defining, but you can reduce non-defining subject clauses by following the same rules.  It doesn’t seem to be nearly as common though.  There are, however, some clauses that cannot be reduced.  You cannot reduce a non-defining object clause.  It just ain’t possible.  You also cannot reduce a clause that has a helping verb like can, must or will.


If you understand these rules and want to try reducing clauses in your own writing, be my guest.  It’s not extremely important to be able to do this, but it will make your writing smoother.  It is essential, though, that you be able to recognize reduced adjective clauses when you find one, especially on the TEOFL test.  The simplest test, when you think you’ve found one is to add that and the be verb.  If it works, it's a reduced adjective clause.  With practice, this will get easier and easier.

Go to Part II

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*For an explanation of defining and non-defining clauses, please refer to my blog on the subject: The Eternal Question: Which or That?


**An object clause is one in which the relative pronoun (who, which or that) is the direct object of the adjective clause.  A subject clause is one in which the relative clause is the subject of the clause.

• I just bought a new car. / Do you like the car that you just bought?
• The car has a GPS system. / I need a car that has a GPS system.

***There are two differences between these clauses and appositives.  First, most reduced object clauses are defining clauses, whereas most appositives come from non-defining, subject clauses.  Second, the two nouns of an appositive are the same person, place or thing.  With these reduced clauses, they are usually different.

I’m Such an Optimist, I’m Appositive (Part II)

Which piece of information should go in the appositive?


When I write a sentence with a non-defining adjective clause, I have to decide which information should be in the main clause and which information should be in the adjective clause.  I ask myself a simple question.  What is the most important piece of information?  What do I want the reader to remember most?  What information should I emphasize?  (Each of these is basically the same question worded differently, in case you were thinking “Hey!  You said ONE question!”)  For example:

• Baseball, which is called the National Pastime, was played as early as the Civil War.
• Baseball, which was played as early as the Civil War, is called the National Pastime.

Both of these sentences have the same information, but the first sentence emphasizes the history of baseball (played during the Civil War) because that is the main clause.  Conversely, the second sentence emphasizes the importance of baseball in the U.S. (the National Pastime).  This is the same way you decide which noun should be the appositive (the second noun in the pair).  For example, if I am writing about my kids, their names and their ages, I have two choices:

• My older son, Kai, is almost 16 and my younger son, Skyler, is 18 months old.
• Kai, my older son, is almost 16 and Skyler, my younger son, is 18 months old.

Both of these sentences are grammatically correct, but I prefer the first one.  I am talking about their ages, so making the words older and younger part of the main noun makes more sense.  Their names are important, but not as important in this case.  There is also an idea that I don’t know the person I am talking well, like the woman sitting next to me on an airplane.  We are enjoying a nice conversation, but once the plane lands, she won’t remember my kids’ names, just like I will remember that she has three dogs (I love dogs.), but I’ll never remember her dogs' names, either.  On the other hand:

• My older son, Kai, loves sports while my younger son, Skyler, is more of a musician.
• Kai, my older son, loves sports while Skyler, my younger son, is more of a musician.

In this case, I prefer putting the name first and their “ranking” in apposition.  This is because I am telling my Facebook friends about my kids’ interests, but I’m also reminding them of their “position” in case they forgot or didn’t know.  It’s not that important, though.  (I love them both equally, until one of them becomes a multi-millionaire and I can retire on their money.)


What are appositives used for?


Most commonly, appositives are used with people.  This is a way to give both a person’s name and their title.  In this case, my advice for organization is to put the title first and the name in apposition, unless of course, you have a reason to go the other way.  Final decision is always yours.  (Students: Remember, however, that I am the one who decides your grade, so for you, final decision is MINE!)  For example:

• the President of the United States, Barack Obama
• the captain of the New York Yankees, Derek Jeter
• the leader of the Confederate Army, Robert E. Lee

Another common usage is to define something, especially foreign words or technical terms.  For example:

• bento, a Japanese style boxed lunch
• quinceañera, a fifteenth birthday party given for girls in many Latin American cultures
• the modem, the hardware that connects your computer to the Internet
• a sextant, the tool used by early explorers to figure out how far north or south they were

When the definition is first and the term is second, you should add the conjunction or.  (Commas before and after are very important)

• Korean-style dumplings, or man-doo,
• the outrigger of a Hawaiian racing canoe, or ama,
• the computer that stores a web page, or server,
• the ball accidentally going forward in rugby, or knock-on,

Another use of an appositive is to show the acronym* of a group of words.  (Acronyms are often preceded by or put inside parentheses.)  For example:

• the United Nations, or UN,
• the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)
• the University of Southern California (USC)

Finally, appositives can be used to give lists of things that are part of the category described by the original noun.  The original noun is followed by a colon.

• the three major professional leagues in the U.S.: the NFL, the NBA and MLB
• the four seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter
• two of my all-time favorite bands: Rush and KISS

Another way to punctuate appositives is with a dash, both before and after the appositive.  (A dash is made by putting two hyphens together.  There should be no space either before or after the dash.

• two of my all-time favorite bands–Rush and KISS
• bento–a Japanese-style boxed lunch
• when the ball accidentally goes forward in rugby–a knock-on

A more advanced usage of appositives that I found is when you want to give several detailed descriptions of one noun.  I found this good example in the book Over the Edge of the Earth.   (BTW - that is an apposition.)

• Magellan’s insistence on a ten-year exclusive on voyages to the Spice Islands appeared preposterous in a fast-changing world, but he was concerned that Spain would send duplicate expeditions as soon as his was out of sight of land, expeditions guided by his theories and secrets, expeditions that might succeed if he failed.

The original noun that is followed by the appositives is expeditions.  This is followed by two more uses of the word expeditions, each of which is followed by an adjective clause.  Both of these refer back to the original word expedition.  (Notice: No connecting words in front.)


Here are some of the more interesting appositives I’ve found.

• Magellan sent word to the recalcitrant chieftains that if they did not convert immediately and swear allegiance to King Charles, he would confiscate their property, a European concept that was nearly meaningless to the islanders, and he vowed to punish them with death, a threat they understood but chose to ignore.  (Over the Edge of the Earth)

In this sentence there are two appositives.  The first appositive is a European concept.  This concept involves an action, so technically the appositive is connected to a gerund, which is the “noun” form of a verb.  (The original sentence the appositive comes from is: Confiscating property is a European concept.)  The second appositive, a threat, is very similar.  The original sentence that the appositive comes from is: Punishing them with death was a threat they understood....

• Meanwhile, Seville’s titled oligarchy fattened itself with income derived from leasing lands to farmers or cashed in on their titles and prestige to engage in commercial pursuits: importing wine, oil, and soap.  (Over the Edge of the World)

In this case, the original noun is followed by a gerund phrase in apposition.  The pursuits of Seville’s titled oligarchy were importing wine, oil and soap.

• Then Stephanopoulos asked about his association with William Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground (a group that had bombed the Pentagon and the Capitol in the early seventies), who lived in Obama’s neighborhood in Chicago and with whom he was said to be friendly.  (Game Change)

This one has an appositive inside an appositive.  The first appositive, which describes William Ayers, is a former member of the Weather Underground.  This is followed by a second appositive, in parentheses, that defines the Weather Underground, which was a group that bombed the Pentagon...  I think this one is especially cool.

• The Bird told people that he was a refugee from Tokyo whose relatives were all dead, a story that, in postwar Japan, was as common as white rice.  (Unbroken)

This last example involves a noun clause.  The appositive is the noun story.  The story was that the Bird was a refugee from Tokyo whose relatives were dead.


In conclusion, appositives are very common in written English and serve many purposes.  Most appositives are easy to find and fairly easy to use.  However, as I’ve discovered during my little bit of research, appositives come in all shapes and sizes.  (Sometimes appositives can come before the noun, too.  Ask me about that later.)  They all have one common denominator: appositives are all based around nouns.  They can be in the form of gerunds, or noun clauses or even infinitives.  They can be followed by long, descriptive adjective clauses.  The subject of the sentence can be described by an appositive at the end of the sentence.  When you go appositive hunting, there’s no telling what you will find.


However, every appositive I found was discovered the same way.  I found a noun that didn’t seem to be connected to anything else.


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*An acronym is made when you take the first letter of each word in a name and make an abbreviation, like JFK for John F. Kennedy.

I’m Such an Optimist, I’m Appositive (Part I)

What is an appositive?


An appositive is used in writing to give more information about a person, place or thing.  (People use appositives in conversation, too, but it’s really not that important.)  Appositives look like they break two cardinal rules of writing: Everything must be connected and If you have two nouns together, you must have one connecting word, either a preposition or a conjunction.  (These are appositives, by the way.)  Here are the signs of an appositive.

1. When you see two nouns, back to back, without a connecting word, you probably have an appositive.
2. An appositive is usually separated from the original noun by a comma.  (I will explain more about this later.)
3. The two nouns are the same person, place or thing.  Sometimes they are even the same word.

Here are some examples of sentences with appositives.

• My older son, Kai, is sixteen years old and my younger son, Skyler, is 18 months old.
• The most popular pieces of technology, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, are all made by Apple.
• Last summer, I toured the Gettysburg Battlefield, the site of perhaps the most important event in U.S. history.

The purpose of the appositive is to identify the noun, to give more information.*  What are your son’s names?  What are the most popular pieces of technology?  What is the significance of the Battle of Gettysburg?  Most commonly, appositives give the name or title of a person.  (older son = Kai; younger son = Skyler)  Appositives are also used to connect lists of examples (popular technology = iPod, iPhone, iPad).  Obviously it is possible two have two or more nouns in apposition.  Appositives are also very useful for giving detailed descriptions of a noun (Battle of Gettysburg = the site of...), when a couple of adjectives is not enough.  I have seen several examples of the same word repeated three times, and each one is followed by an adjective clause, all of which describe the original noun, like this.

• One of my personal heros is Martin Luther King, Jr., a man who changed the course of American history, a man who believed that violence and hatred were never acceptable, a man who was willing to sacrifice himself for the good of the country.

If you think appositives are very similar to adjectives clauses, you are absolutely right because an appositive is basically a reduced adjective clause.**  Appositives originally come from simple SVC adjective clauses.  For example:

• my oldest son, Kai   /   my oldest son, whose name is Kai
• pieces of technology, the iPod...   /   pieces of technology, which are the iPod...
• Gettysburg Battlefield, the site...   /   Gettysburg Battlefield, which was the site...

Easy peasey, lemon squeezy.  However, don’t be fooled.  Just because two nouns are separated by a comma, that doesn’t mean there is an appositive.  For example:

• After rugby practice, Kai went back to his room and took a long, hot shower.

Practice and Kai are together, and they are separated by a comma, but this is not an appositive.  First, there is a connecting word.  Practice is the object of the preposition after.  (Here's an appositive without commas.)  You could move this whole phrase to the end of the sentence and nothing would really change.  Second, the two nouns don’t have the same meaning.  Kai is a person (as much as any teenager is a person) while practice is a thing.  For these reasons, this is not an appositive.


Also, it is easy to get fooled by a compound subject or object that has three or more nouns.  For example:

• We made a picnic lunch, sandwiches and a bento, and went for a hike.
• I put my lunch, a bottle of water, and some bug spray in my backpack.

The first example has an appositive, because sandwiches and a bento describe the picnic lunch.  They are the same.  However, the second sentence does not have an appositive, even though lunch and a bottle of water are separated by a comma.  In this case, I have listed the three things I put in my backpack.  My lunch and a bottle of water are two of them.  Besides, a bottle of water is not a very good lunch.


Do you always need commas with an appositive?


My 90% answer*** is, YES.  If you write an appositive, put commas both before and after the second noun (and whatever might be attached to the second noun, like an adjective clause).  Because an appositive comes from a reduced adjective clause, they follow the rules regarding defining and non-defining adjective clauses.  (Click on the link to see a more detailed explanation.)


In a nutshell, you need commas when you add a non-defining clause to a noun.  A non-defining clause is an adjective clause that gives extra, bonus information the reader may or may not already know or want to know.  It’s kind of like the director’s commentary on a DVD.  You are adding it just in case someone might think it’s interesting.  Since appositives are adding definitions, extra descriptive information, lists and examples, most of the time, this is bonus material.


Of the approximately ninety sentences I pulled out of books, and probably many more I didn’t because they seemed very simple and obvious, only five didn’t have commas.  This is closer to a 95% rule.  It’s certainly not enough to lose sleep over.  Besides, once you become comfortable with punctuating adjective clauses in general, that will carry over to appositives.


These are the basics of appositives and I recommend that intermediate learners of English try to use simple appositives when they write.  However, learning to identify appositives is much trickier and much more important for reading comprehension.  If you would like to know more, keep reading Part II.

Go to Part II

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*In this sentence, two infinitive phrases are in apposition: to identify... and to give....


**A reduced clause is a clause from which several understood words are eliminated because they are unnecessary.  For example:

• Before we move to California, we need to sell a lot of stuff. / Before moving to California...  (We is the subject of both clauses, so it can be eliminated in the dependent clause.)
• You will do fine on your exam if you are well-prepared. / You will do fine if well-prepared.  (This is a formal, literary structure, but again, the subject is the same in both clauses.  Also, the “be” verb can very often be dropped in reduced clauses.)
• The car that is parked in my spot... / The car parked in my spot.

***A 90% answer is what I call an overly simplified rule that a language learner can use to make decisions.  It means that this rule works about 90% of the time, but if you always follow it, you will be wrong 10% of the time, which is still an A-.  In other words, for now, if you follow this simplified rule all the time, it’s good enough.  However, you will need to amend, or add to, this rule as your English becomes more advanced.