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Hole One a New See Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Understanding of the word 'fertile'

Hi everybody,

I saw this definition in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

(of land or soil) that plants grow well in
I would like to ask for an analysis of this sentence (e.g. type of words [e.g. verb, noun, etc.], meaning, and so on). I thought that "that plants" should be 'plants of which'. I can't understand the meaning of 'of' inside the parentheses. I also can't identify where 'in' belongs to at the end of the sentence.

I understand the meaning, it was defined in other way in Cambridge dictionary, but this (definition of Oxford) one is hard to digest.

Thanks for your help in advance.
  

Top answer

The parentheses and "of" mean that you can use the word "fertile" to modify land or soil. The land is fertile. The soil is fertile.

— AlpheccaStars

  • The parentheses and "of" mean that you can use the word "fertile" to modify land or soil.
  • The land is fertile.
  • The soil is fertile.
  • Plants grow strongly in this soil because it is fertile.
  • Of can be used this way: It was said of the land of Israel: It is a land of milk and honey.
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8 Answers
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The parentheses and "of" mean that you can use the word "fertile" to modify land or soil.

The land is fertile.
The soil is fertile.

Plants grow strongly in this soil because it is fertile.

Of can be used this way:

It was said of the land of Israel: It is a land of milk and honey.
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Thank you. Now I can't understand only that 'that'. I think it is a 'possession' in the form 'that plants' but I can find it nowhere.
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.... that plants grow well in.

If you substitute land/soil, you will see a relative clause:

Fertile describes land (soil) that plants grow well in.
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I can see it but I still don't understand but I have a guess now. Does the compound 'land that' function like 'such a land'?
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That, who, and which are relative pronouns. They introduce an adjectival clause:

He is a timid dog that hides from everyone.
The house that Jack built is a very nice house.
The plant, which has pretty white flowers, decorates my table.
The fog that rolled in last night caused many accidents.
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I can understand the meaning but the 'building' of this structure is hard a little bit for me. It has another structure than the following sentences:

He is a timid dog that hides from everyone.
The plant, which has pretty white flowers, decorates my table.
The fog that rolled in last night caused many accidents.
In the meantime I also f
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This is the book (that) I am looking for.
Yes, that is the same structure.

When a relative pronoun introduces a clause, the pronoun can be an object of of a preposition which is at the end of the clause.
Which is different. It allows the preposition to go before it, but most native speakers put the preposition at the end.

This is a soil
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