Japanese Relative Clauses: Put a Description Before a Noun

A Japanese clause can come directly before a noun: 昨日買った本, “the book I bought yesterday.” There is no separate relative pronoun equivalent to “which” in this basic structure. Keep the modifying clause plain even when the whole sentence ends politely.

Formation and use

The noun comes after its description: 日本語を勉強している人. Read to the head noun before deciding what the whole phrase means. The person is the one studying Japanese.

Use dictionary form for a non-past description and た for a completed action: 明日読む本, 昨日読んだ本. The tense inside the modifier has its own relationship to the described event.

Comparisons and common errors

An explicit subject inside the modifier commonly takes が: 母が作った料理. In this beginner structure do not insert は as though starting a new independent topic before the head noun.

The whole noun phrase then takes its role in the main sentence: 母が作った料理を食べました. Do not put を after 料理 inside the modifier as well; the missing object role is supplied by the head noun.

Practise with explanations

Try the 10 questions below, or open the practice set. Check each answer or the whole set, read the explanation, and retry mistakes. First-attempt results are kept separately on this device.

Connected lessons

• Plain and Polite Japanese: Forms, Tense, and Context
• Japanese Ta Form: Plain Past Conjugation
• Put Japanese Adjectives Before Nouns