Relative clause and passive?

Question

I'm having trouble explaining "why" a sentence can't have the following structure.

Wrong: The woman lives next door is a doctor.
Correct: The woman living next door is a doctor.
The woman who lives next door is a doctor.

Wrong: I witnessed the accident was caused by that truck.
Correct: I witnessed the accident caused by that truck.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Avangi · Accepted Answer

You have two finite verbs, lives, and is.
So you have a compound predicate, requiring a conjunction:

The woman lives next door and is a doctor.

"Finite" has to do with time. If the verb has a tense, then there's live action.
Non-finite verbs (living, caused) are descriptive.
The clause, "who lives next door" is also descriptive.

Sometimes it's confusing, because finite and non-finite verbs can have the same form:

"caused" (simple past tense) He caused the accident.

"caused" (past participle/adjective) This is a caused incident.

CalifJim · Answer

TerI'm having trouble explaining "why" a sentence can't have the following structure.

Wrong: The woman lives next door is a doctor.

When the subject of a relative clause is the pronomialized element, it cannot be omitted.

The woman [she lives next door] is a doctor. > The woman who lives next door is a doctor.

Contrast this with the case where the pronomialized element is the object of the relative clause:

The woman [I met her last week] was a doctor. > The woman I met last week was a doctor.
(Or The woman whom I met ....)

CJ

Relative clause and passive?

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions