Grammar JLPT Level N5 - Lesson 13

In Japanese, if you want to describe something or someone that is performing an action, one of the ways you can do this is through a relative clause. A relative clause is when two phrases are joined into one sentence, rather than two individual sentences. The た (plain-past), or ている (continuous) form of verbs are usually used.

• たかしさんは東京(とうきょう)に住(す)んだ男(おとこ)。
  Takashi-san is a man that lived in Tokyo.
• 貴方(あなた)が食(た)べたハンバーガ。
  The hamburger that you ate.
• 田中(たなか)さんが飲(の)んでいるコーヒー。
  The coffee that Tanaka-san is drinking.
• 道(みち)で寝(ね)ている犬(いぬ)。
  A dog that is sleeping on the road.

る-Verbs and う-Verbs follow their regular conjugation rules when making a relative clause. In the first example, we can see that 'Takashi-san is a man that lives in Tokyo', is one sentence, rather than 'Takashi-san is a man. He lives in Tokyo'. In English, words like 'that', and 'which' are used to create a relative clause. However, seeing as though these words do not exist in Japanese, the first phrase is simply attached to the noun.