Last time, you learned how to nominalize verbs and adjectives and make a noun clause like “私が先生 なの・であること は.” In this lesson, you will take a different approach to express a noun with contexts by using Japanese relative clauses.
Explanation for How Japanese Relative Clauses Work
Basic Rules of Relative Clauses
In Japanese, relative clauses can be made with a very simple structure. You can directly modify a noun by using verbs without conjugations. Let’s check some examples.
| 田中さんは北海道を旅行（する / します）。 Tanaka-san will travel in Hokkaido. |
If you have the above sentence, you can express it by using relative clauses like this:
| 田中さんが旅行する北海道 Hokkaido where Tanaka-san will travel |
| 北海道を旅行する田中さん Tanaka-san who will travel in Hokkaido |
Now, let’s form some sentences with the relative clauses.
| 田中さんが | 旅行する | 北海道は | 人気（だ / です） |
| Subject | Verb | Modified Noun | |
| Relative Clause: Topic / Subject | Predicate | ||
| Hokkaido where Tanaka-san will travel is popular. | |||
| 北海道を | 旅行する | 田中さんは | 男性（だ / です） |
| Object | Verb | Modified Noun | |
| Relative Clause: Topic / Subject | Predicate | ||
| Tanaka-san who will travel in Hokkaido is male. | |||
Regarding the function of relative clauses, you can figure it out by looking at particles placed after modified nouns. In the above examples, the topic particle は is used. Of course, you can make relative clauses with other particles as well.
| 田中さんが | 旅行する | 理由を | 調べる / 調べます |
| Subject | Verb | Modified Noun | |
| Relative Clause: Direct Object | Verb | ||
| [I will] investigate the reason why Tanaka-san will travel. | |||
| 私も | 田中さんが | 旅行する | 北海道に | 行く / 行きます |
| Subject | Verb | Modified Noun | ||
| Subject & Inclusion | Relative Clause: Destination | Verb | ||
| I will go to Hokkaido where Tanaka san will travel, too. | ||||
Grammatical Rules
1. Don’t Use the Polite Form
You can express relative clauses without conjugations and thus you cannot use the polite form in general.
| 田中さんが作るごはん Meal which Tanaka-san makes |
| 田中さんが => Wrong! |
2. You Can Replace the Particle が with the Particle の in Relative Clauses
It may be better for you to try to memorize this rule without logic; however, it is said that the particle の can somehow express something that verbs express, such as, possessors and creators. In Japanese, the following have the same meaning and nuances.
| 田中さんが作るごはん Meals which Tanaka-san makes |
| 田中さんの作るごはん Meals which Tanaka-san makes |
Note: This is applicable within relative clauses. And, when there are some elements, the particle が is more natural.
| 田中さんが家で作るごはん Meals which Tanaka-san makes at home |
| 田中さん => Unnatural |
The second example above can roughly be translated as “Meals which someone makes at Tanaka-san’s house," which is different from the original meaning.
3. You Cannot Use the Topic Particle は in Relative Clauses
Since the topic should be for whole sentences, you cannot use the topic particle は in relative clauses.
| 田中さんが作るごはん Meal which Tanaka-san makes |
| 田中さん => Wrong! |
Please don’t be confused with particles placed after modified nouns. That is out of relative clauses. The following is correct:
| 田中さんが | 作る | ごはんは | 美味しい（です） |
| Subject | Verb | Modified Noun | |
| Relative Clause: Topic / Subject | Preducate | ||
| Meals which Tanaka-san makes are delicious. | |||
Summary
- You can directly modify a noun by using verbs without conjugations
- In relative clauses,
- Don’t use the polite form
- You can replace the particle が with the particle の
- You cannot use the topic particle は
We think that Japanese relative clauses are very simple and won’t make learners confused. Thus, you can now modify a noun by using verbs correctly. Then, what should you do if you’d like to modify verbs? Next, you will learn how Japanese adverbs work.
