Which noun does relative pronoun refer to?

Question

Hi, sometimes i have a problem with understanding which noun that relative pronoun refer to in a sentence. For instance, when seeing this sentence "Here is a classic counterexample of data sets that k-means cannot cluster.", i just got stock to find out the correct noun referred by "that". Is there a way to clarify this kind of problem? By the way, if there are some grammar mistakes in my question, please tell me, thanks!

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Hi, sometimes i have a problem with understanding which noun ~~that~~ a relative pronoun refers to in a sentence. For instance, when seeing this sentence "Here is a classic counterexample of data sets that k-means cannot cluster.", i just got stock (stuck?) to find ~~out~~ the correct noun referred by "that". Is there a way to clarify this kind of problem? By the way, if there are some grammar mistakes in my question, please tell me, thanks!

What is the closest noun that comes before "that" in the sentence?

CalifJim · Answer

Sometimes I have trouble understanding which noun a relative pronoun refers to in a sentence. For instance, I got stuck trying to figure out which noun "that" refers to in the sentence below. Is there a way to solve this kind of problem?

Here is a classic counterexample of data sets that k-means cannot cluster.

By the way, if there are mistakes in my questions, please tell me. Thanks!
__________________

The noun that immediately precedes the relative clause is almost always the noun that the clause modifies.

data sets that k-means cannot cluster comes from k-means cannot cluster (those) data sets.

It's the noun that fits into the relative clause best when you substitute the noun for the relative pronoun and rearrange it so it makes sense.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

oh, I see. Thanks for your reply and correction. <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks for your explanation and correction. <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

Which noun does relative pronoun refer to?

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