ref – https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/adjective_clauses.htm

An adjective clause is a multi-word adjective that includes a subject and a verb.

For example:

The painting (subj) we bought last week (adj) is (subj) a fake (obj).
When we think of an adjective, we usually think about a single word used before a noun to modify its meanings (e.g., tall building, smelly cat, argumentative assistant). However, an adjective can also come in the form of an adjective clause. An adjective clause usually comes after the noun it modifies and is made up of several words, which, like all clauses, include a subject and a verb.

When we think of an adjective, we usually think about a single word used before a noun to modify its meanings

• tall building
• smelly cat
• argumentative assistant

However, an adjective can also come in the form of an adjective clause.

An adjective clause usually comes after the noun it modifies and is made up of several words, which, like all clauses, include a subject and a verb.

The Components of an Adjective Clause

An adjective clause (also called a relative clause) will have the following three traits:

• Trait 1.
  It will start with a relative pronoun (who, whom, whose, that, or which) or a relative adverb (when, where, or why).
  This links it to the noun it is modifying.
  Note: Quite often, the relative pronoun can be omitted. However, with an adjective clause, it is always possible to put one in.

  Note – A relative pronoun is a word that introduces a dependent (or relative) clause and connects it to an independent clause. A clause beginning with a relative pronoun is poised to answer questions such as Which one? How many? or What kind? Who, whom, what, which, and that are all relative pronouns.

• Trait 2. It will have a subject and a verb. So that it becomes a clause.
• Trait 3. It will tell us something about the noun.
  (This is why it is a kind of adjective.)

Quite often, the relative pronoun is the subject of the clause. Look at the three traits in this example:

When the adjective clause starts with a relative adverb (when, where or why), the relative adverb cannot be omitted.

I don’t remember a time when words were not dangerous.
(You can often omit a relative pronoun, but you can’t omit a relative adverb. So, you can’t omit when in this example.)

An adjective clause set off from the main clause by commas (one comma if at the beginning or end of a sentence) is said to be nonrestrictive.

Here’s an example:

Old Professor Legree, who dresses like a teenager, is going through his second childhood.

This “who” clause is nonrestrictive because the information it contains doesn’t restrict or limit the noun it modifies, old Professor Legree. Instead, the clause provides added but not essential information, which is signaled by commas. A nonrestrictive adjective clause can be removed without affecting a sentence.

My brother, who claimed to have a limp, sprinted after the bus. √
(This clause is not required to identify My brother. It is added information, so we can add commas.)

My brother (who claimed to have a limp) sprinted after the bus. √
(As it’s just added information, you can put it in brackets.)

My brother sprinted after the bus. √
(You can even delete it.)

Restrictive Adjective Clauses

A restrictive adjective clause, on the other hand, is essential to a sentence and should not be set off by commas.
For example:

“An older person who dresses like a teenager is often an object of ridicule. ” √

Here, the adjective clause restricts or limits the meaning of the noun it modifies (an older person).

It should never be:

“An older person, who dresses like a teenager, is often an object of ridicule.” ( X )

as the meaning changes complete. It makes ‘An older person’ into a a singular identified person, which is not the case. We’re talking about ‘an older person’ in general so we should not use commas. Commas are used for optional usage.

(Question 2) What’s the difference between that and which?

Which and that are interchangeable, provided we’re talking about which without a comma.

When which starts a restrictive clause (i.e., a clause not offset with commas), you can replace it with that.

Mark’s dog that ate the chicken is looking guilty.

For many, even Brits, that sounds more natural with a restrictive clause. And, this is something we can use.

The “that substitution” trick also works with who, but be aware that some of your readers might not like that used for people.

The burglar who is suing the homeowner was booed in court.
The burglar that is suing the homeowner was booed in court.

(Substituting who for that is a good way to test whether an adjective clause needs commas or not, but some of your readers might not like ‘that’ being used for a person – even a burglar. So, if your clause starting who sounds okay with that, then revert to who without commas.)

ref –

• https://chineseruleof8.com/2024/01/02/noun-clauses/
• https://chineseruleof8.com/2024/02/21/adjective-clauses/
• https://chineseruleof8.com/2023/12/24/adverbial-clause/
• https://pediaa.com/difference-between-clause-and-sentence/

Clauses play different roles in a sentence.

A clause can act as a noun, adjective or an adverb.

• A noun clause acts as a noun;
• an adjective clause acts as an adjective
• and an adverbial clause acts as an adverb.

Noun Clause:

noun clause

We heard what you told them.

A man who betrayed his friends cannot be trusted.

Adjective Clause:

adjective clause

This clause appears behind the noun, and describes it.

The dress which you bought last year needs to be shortened.

I believed the lie she told me.

Adverbial Clause:

adverbial clause

He goes whenever he wants.

Our clause describes verb ‘goes’. So it takes place as an adverb.

I had to continue until I received news from them.

Our clause describes the verb ‘continue’. So it takes place as an adverb.

ref – https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/predicate.htm

ref – https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/subject.htm

(Issue 1) Modifiers get between the simple subject and its verb and confuse writers.

Sentences can get complicated, but writers are pretty good at making the subject and the main verb agree.

Simon, who is the oldest of the four brothers and who, just as he did before last year’s contest, has been suffering back spasms, is expected to take the first leg.
The biggest issue occurs with shorter constructions, typically in a format like a list of ideas or a range of factors.

A container of nuts and bolts were found in the cellar. (X)

(This is wrong. It should be was. The simple subject is container, which is singular.)

A range of factors have been considered. (X)

(This is wrong. It should be has. The simple subject is range, which is singular.)

(Issue 2) Terms like as well as do not form a compound subject.

Terms like as well as, along with, and together with do not compound the subject like and does.

Jack and his son are visiting tomorrow. (√)
(The word and creates a compound subject.)

Jack together with his son is visiting tomorrow. (√)
(The terms together with does not create a compound subject.)

(Issue 3) Or and nor do not conjoin.

Unlike and, the conjunctions or and nor do not conjoin.
Jack or his daughter is visiting tomorrow. (√)

Compare that with these:
Jack and his daughter are visiting tomorrow. (√)

Neither Jack nor his daughter are visiting tomorrow. (X)

(This should be is because nor does not conjoin; i.e., or does not add to the number of the subject.)

There’s a quirk though. Look at this example:
Neither Jack nor his daughters are visiting tomorrow. (√)

(This is correct because one of the nouns in the compound subject is plural.)

The example above sounds right because the noun nearest the verb (daughters) is plural.

To some, it sounds awkward when the plural noun is the first one.

Neither his daughters nor Jack are visiting tomorrow. (√)
(This is correct for the same reason; i.e., one of the nouns in the compound subject is plural.)
The words or and nor (called conjunctions) usually appear in the pairings either/or and neither/nor (called correlative conjunctions).

Proximity Rule

You should also be aware that there is a reasonably well-followed rule called the Proximity Rule, which offers different guidance.

Under the Proximity Rule, the verb is determined by the nearest noun to the verb.

Neither cakes nor chocolate is going to give you the nutrients you need.

(This is correct under the Proximity Rule because chocolate (singular) is the nearest noun to the verb, but it is wrong under the standard ruling because cakes (plural) is part of the compound subject.)

So, should you follow the standard ruling or the Proximity Rule?

For consistency, adopt the same convention as those around you. If you can’t find any examples, pick one that doesn’t grate on your ear and be consistent.

Here’s a good tip: Reword your subject to adhere to both rules.

Neither chocolate nor cakes are going to give you the nutrients you need. (√)
(Now both rules are satisfied.)

(Issue 4) Either and neither are singular.

When used by themselves (i.e., as pronouns), either and neither are singular.

Writers are often tempted to treat them as plural because they seem to refer to two things.
Beef or lamb? Either is preferable to tofu. (√)
Neither of the sisters is eligible to attend. (√)

(Issue 5) Collective nouns can be singular or plural.

A collective noun is a word that represents a group (e.g., board, team, jury). A collective noun can be singular or plural depending on the sense of the sentence.

The jury is late returning to the courtroom. (√)
(When a collective noun is considered as one unit, treat it as singular.)

The jury are all wearing different colored shirts. (√)
(When the focus is on the individuals in the group, treat your collective noun as plural.)

Often, it’s difficult to make a decision on whether to opt for singular or plural.

A good trick is to precede your collective noun with words like members of, which forces you to go plural.

The members of the jury are late returning to the courtroom. (√)

(Issue 6) Some words that look plural aren’t, and some words that are plural in Latin aren’t in English.

The words listed below often cause issues with subject-verb agreement:
Word Singular or Plural?
agenda Singular
(even though it is the plural of agendum)
criteria Plural
(Unlike data and agendum, criteria has retained its plural status because the singular criterion is still in common usage.)
data Singular nowadays
(even though it is the plural of datum)
measles Singular
media Singular or Plural
(Treat media like a collective noun as opposed to the plural of medium.)
news Singular
Plural only words like glasses, pliers, scissors, trousers, underpants Plural but note that “a pair of [insert word]” is singular.
There is more on this topic in the entry for number.

(Issue 7) The expression more than one is singular.

Somewhat counterintuitively (given its meaning), more than one is singular.
More than one person was involved in this robbery. (√)

(Issue 8) None can be singular or plural.

The indefinite pronoun none can be singular or plural. However, be aware that treating none as plural might irk some of your readers as many people believe none can only be singular.
None of the team is ready. (√)
(This is the safest option, and, let’s face it, it sounds more highbrow.)
None of the team are ready. (√)
(If going singular with none sounds too highbrow for you, you are safe to go plural these days. Hey, live on the edge.)

Here’s a tip: If your none translates best as “not one of,” then treat it as singular. If it translates best as “not any of,” then treat it as plural. If this doesn’t work for your example, then try to treat it as singular. If treating it as singular grates on your ear too much, be brave and go for plural.

If you’re facing the “his/their dilemma” (see also Issue 12), then treat none as plural.
None of the team has polished their boots.
None of the team have polished their boots. (√) (This is far tidier.)

(Issue 9) Terms like half of, the majority of, and a percentage of can be singular or plural.

Expressions such as half of, a part of, a percentage of, a proportion of, and a majority of are singular when they refer to something singular but plural when they refer to something plural.
The majority of my blood is Asian. (√) (Golfer Tiger Woods)
Half of my employees are women. (√) (Businesswoman Christie Hefner)
Seventy percent of success in life is showing up. (√) (Actor Woody Allen)
If eighty percent of your sales come from twenty percent of all of your items, just carry those twenty percent. (√) (US politician Henry Kissinger)

(Issue 10) Number of is plural…most of the time.

The term number of will nearly always be plural.
Lee, a number of cakes have been stolen from the buffet. (√)
A good number of my friends are married, which seems very old-fashioned. (√) (Actress Allison Williams)
Be aware though that number can be singular when referring to an arithmetical value.
The number of women was sixty-four. (√)
The number of women were sixty-four. (X)

(Issue 11) Words like all and some can be singular or plural.

All, any, more, most, and some (types of indefinite pronoun) are singular when they refer to something singular but plural when they refer to something plural.
All of the bread has been stolen. (√)
All of the biscuits have been stolen. (√)
All of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare. (√)
Some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts. (√)

(Issue 12) There’s no suitable possessive determiner to agree with words like someone, and anyone.

Anyone, each, everyone, no one, nobody, and someone are singular. (These words are types of indefinite pronoun.)
The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive. (√) (Author Robert Heinlein)
Nobody is ever met at the airport when beginning a new adventure. (√) (Film producer Elizabeth Warnock Fernea)
That all seems pretty straightforward. However, if you use a word like his and her (called possessive determiners) later in the same sentence, problems start to arise.
Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined.
What if the person isn’t male? Here are two good options:

(Option 1) Reword your sentence to make it all plural.
People who go to a psychiatrist should have their heads examined. (√)
(Option 2) Use their instead of his.
Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have their head examined. (√)
The English language doesn’t have a gender-neutral singular pronoun for people. This flaw has compelled us to treat their as singular as well as plural.
Read more about treating they and their as singular.

(Issue 13) The positive element governs the verb.

When a subject has a positive element and a negative element, make your verb agree with the positive one.
The CEO not the board members makes the final decision. (√)
(The CEO is the positive element. The board members is the negative element.)
The prawns not the fish were responsible for the vomiting outbreak. (√)
(The positive element is the prawns. The negative element is the fish.)

(Issue 14) Each is singular, but its modifiers often confuse writers.

The word each is often used in a prepositional phrase (e.g., each of the cars, each of the boxes). If this prepositional phrase is the subject, don’t be fooled by the plural modifiers (cars and boxes). The word each is the subject, and the verb must be singular. For example:
Each of the guide dogs is assigned a trainer. (√)

(Issue 15) The subject is plural, but the concept is singular.

It’s not that common, but there are times when the subject and verb don’t have to agree. Look at this example:
Alpacas in a field is a fairly common sight these days.
(This is correct even though alpacas (the simple subject) is clearly plural. Here, our subject is a concept, which is singular.)
Leaving a list of passwords, increasing your life insurance and writing a will, gives you peace of mind while you are on operations.
(Here, we have a compound subject that looks plural, but if you envisage this list of tasks as a singular concept (perhaps under an imaginary heading like “sorting your life out”), then it is possible to use a singular verb.)
(You might also have noticed that the subject ends with a comma. This is not a popular practice (and it will definitely annoy some people), but a comma can be used to end a complex compound subject to group it neatly for your readers.)

ref –

• https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/subject.htm
• https://writingexplained.org/grammar-dictionary/subject
• https://editorsmanual.com/articles/sentence-structure-subject

What Is the Subject of a Sentence?

The subject of a sentence is when the person/thing:

• does an action
• or being described

Does an action: Ricky eats the pie.
(Ricky is the subject of the sentence. Ricky is doing the action.)

Being described: He is angry.
(He is the subject of the sentence. He is being described.)

Keep in mind that

The subject of a sentence is a noun (or a pronoun) and all the modifiers that go with it.

note: pronoun is a word that replaces a noun or noun phrase. This replacement helps to avoid repetition and make sentences flow better. Pronouns are used to refer to people, places, things, and ideas.

Examples of Subjects

The chef cooks ten meals.

The dog is friendly.

All cats are shy.

Ricky jumps onto the ocean.

People love fried chicken.

We studied for the test together.

How are subjects used in sentences

1. The subject performs an action:
   • My dog barks at the neighbor.
   • I devoured the meat.
   • We played well.
   • The turtle wins the race.
   • The rabbit jumps over the log.
   • She played the piano beautifully.
   • My friend caught more fishes.
   • Lisa’s mom makes the best barbecue.
2. The subject is described (via linking verbs):
   • My dog is friendly.
   • Maya feels happy when it rains.
   • She looks beautiful tonight.
   • The fish smells rotten.
   • These songs are from my childhood.
   • The ocean spray feels refreshing.
   • The robbers were silent.
   • The vegetables smells funny.
3. The subject is identified:
   • My dog is the one in the middle.
   • The brown liquid is Coke.
   • The red bumps are symptoms of acne.
   • Your grade is at the bottom.
   • These are worms.
   • That lady is a man!
   • That lion is a dog in disguise.
   • That guy with the glasses is Waldo.
4. The subject has an action done to it:
   • My dog was taken to the vet.
   • The foot soldiers were gunned down.
   • I had my foot repaired.
   • The poor man was harassed.
   • My hand was thrown into the meat grinder.
   • Her ego was pounded into oblivion.
   • My confidence took a hard hit.
   • The car was smashed beyond recognition.

Additional Information

Types of subjects

Complete Subject

That boy puts a lot of garlic in his food.
(That boy is an example of a complete subject. It is the simple subject (in this case, boy) plus all modifiers.)

Let’s look at this example again:

The world’s youngest pope was 11 years old.

(The world’s youngest pope is the complete subject. Pope is the simple subject. The, world’s and youngest are modifiers.)

My new friend is an astronaut.

friend is the simple subject. ‘My’ and ‘new’ are modifiers.

Maya, who’s an astronaut, lives on Mars.

Maya is the simple subject. ‘who’s an astronaut’ is a clause that describes Maya.

Simple Subject

Pierre puts a lot of garlic in his food.
(Pierre is the subject. This is an example of a simple subject. A simple subject is just one word without any modifiers.)

Compound Subjects

Ricky and Joy put a lot of garlic in their food.

(Ricky and Joy is a compound subject. That just means it’s made up of more than one element.)

That new boy from Xinjiang and the tall girl with the long hair put a lot of spice in their food.

(This is a compound subject. You can think of it as two complete subjects, each of which contains a simple subject, boy and girl.)

Empty subject

The word it acts as an empty subject in references to time, weather, and distance. The empty it helps introduce a situation or a fact.

EXAMPLES

• It’s raining again.
• It’s 9 o’clock already!
• It’s two miles to the hospital.

Why the Subject of a Sentence Is Important

“The dog is happy” vs “The dog are happy.”

(Changing a verb to match its subject is called verb conjugation.)

Even though verb conjugation is a simple idea, writers often incorrectly give a singular subject a plural verb or a plural subject a singular verb. When this happens, we say there is no subject-verb agreement. A subject and its verb must agree.

Supplemental

• Noun phrase (Two or more words headed by a noun that includes modifiers)

  • My friend is a writer.
  • His buddies scare me.
  • My mother’s brother looks like me.

• Gerund phrase

  • Seeing is believing.
  • Running is a great exercise.
  • Eating is a stress reliever.

• Infinitive phrase

  • To err is human.
  • To make the team is a rite of passage.
  • To take on that challenge is suicide.

• Noun clause (subj + verb)

  • What we need is a miracle.
  • What you see is what you get.
  • Whoever smelt it dealt it.
  • What you said has captivated me.
  • How the accident happened was a tragedy.

• Prepositional phrase

  • At 5 p.m. is when the day begins.

• Dummy subject

  • There is a unicorn in the garden.
  • There is crap everywhere!
  • It is my duty to protect and serve.

Feeling

Loss of pleasure or interest in activities.

Problems concentrating

Thoughts of death or taking your life

Physical

Insomnia – can’t get out of bed

Changes in eating

Can’t get out

Causes

Poor nutrition – high sugar

Stress – overfilled schedule/workload

Alcohol

Medication

Personal Story

Preventive Measure/Natural Ways to Resolve

– regular eating habits/sleeping habits
– exercise (cardio, weight lifting, boxing, hill climbing)
– Travel
– Balanced Schedule
– read books
– stay connected to friends and family. (exceptions)
– understanding why

Write down the object that you want to describe

Her eyes

Pick a vehicle to carry out the idea of comparison

stars

Write down the simile

Her eyes are like stars.

Write down adjectives and verbs of the vehicle

adjectives: glisten, shine, glitter

Use adjectives/verbs of the vehicle to form sentences

Her eyes are like stars.
When I look at her, they glisten and shine.
I could see my reflection in them, and read her mind.

Don’t memorize vocabulary words, we are what we do

Use frameworks instead.

Memorize it today, forget tomorrow. Memorizing is a learning myth.

Use it, touch it, process it everyday, this gives true results.

We are what we do.

Using the wrong English over and over with confidence creates bad habits

Write short paragraphs, and use English writing checkers. (deepl, fanyi.baidu.com)

For pronunciation, use bing.com, type in the vocabulary word + meaning, and click audio.

Create an English learning environment through books

Let the author’s English condition how you read and process English.
The grammar in books have been revised multiple times and is proper English. We should get used to it.
Read one book a week.

ref – https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/compound_predicate.htm