The clauses -ed and -ing

Question

The boy who injured in the accident was taken to hospital.
---
I know this statement is correct since "who injured in the accident" is an extra information of the boy. And according to my knowledge, the boy is subject so I cannot delete the "who". (Right?)

But when I saw another relevant statement. Like this
---
The boy injured in the accident was taken to hospital
--
It completely go against my acceptance of English.

I don't know why.
"injured in the taken" is in this way is also describe the boy, than why do we even use who,which,that to give a extra information?

Like
Do you know the woman who is taking to tom
--
Do you know the woman talking to Tom

Oh my god it is completely confusing, I hardly accept this clause. Can anybody give a hand?

MIG · Accepted Answer

Hi , i am not sure but i think :

Do you know the woman who is talking to Tom? is a relative clause.
Do you know the woman talking to Tom? is an adjective phrase

GPY · Answer

"The boy who injured in the accident was taken to hospital" is actually incorrect. The full version should be "The boy who was injured in the accident was taken to hospital".

The shortened version, "The boy injured in the accident was taken to hospital", is also correct. This is a so-called "reduced relative clause": a relative clause in which the relative pronoun, and sometimes also the be-verb, is omitted.

"Do you know the woman talking to Tom" is also correct and is an example of the same thing.

The page at http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/relative-clauses/ lists several types of reduced relative clause and explains the conditions under which such omissions are valid.

Felixxx · Answer

Okay I will read it first.
thanks,you always help me!

Loracute · Answer

your information is really useful for us, thank you so much, GPY

CalifJim · Answer

FelixxxThe boy who injured in the accident was taken to hospital.---I know this statement is correct

No. You may have copied it wrong from a book. It's

The boy who was injured in the accident was taken to hospital.

who was injured in the accident is a relative clause.

You may remove the first words 'who was' from that clause, but you must remove both 'who' and was' to form this sentence:

The boy injured in the accident was taken to hospital.

Even if you are not comfortable with it, it is correct.

_______________________

If the first word of a relative clause is who, which, or that and the second word is a form of be (e.g., is, are, was, were) used as an auxiliary with an -ing or -en form (a participle), you may remove both words. (Don't remove the participle.)

Do you know the woman [ who is talking to Tom ]? ~
Do you know the woman talking to Tom?

The police found the drugs [ that were secretly smuggled from Mexico ]. ~
The police found the drugs secretly smuggled from Mexico.

The first book [ which was borrowed from the new library ] was Huckleberry Finn. ~
The first book borrowed from the new library was Huckleberry Finn.

The potatoes [ that are frying in the pan ] will be ready to eat in five minutes. ~
The potatoes frying in the pan will be ready to eat in five minutes.

CJ

Felixxx · Answer

Thanks for your help CJ
It is clear, I may find more information about it !

Felixxx · Answer

I've got one more question
is it perfectly common in our daily communication?
I mean... No one would use who,that,which if the sentence can be reduced?

thanks guys

CalifJim · Answer

Felixxxis it perfectly common in our daily communication?I mean... No one would use who,that,which if the sentence can be reduced?

I don't know the exact proportions, but we use both the full forms and the reduced forms in daily conversation. I would guess that we use the full forms more often, probably more than 70% of the time. It seems to me that the reduced forms are more common in the written language than in the spoken language.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Hi.

"The boy injured in the accident was taken to hospital."

Can we simply say that "injured" is an adjective in the postposition?

Thank you.

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousCan we simply say that "injured" is an adjective in the postposition?

Well, it modifies 'boy', so it is adjectival in that way, but to stop at 'adjective' is not saying enough. Note that 'injured' is also modified by a prepositional phrase, just like a verb, so in my opinion it is better to say that 'injured' is a past participle (a verb form) because it gives more information.

CJ

The clauses -ed and -ing

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions