REDUCED RELATIVE CLAUSES (ACTIVE AND PASSIVE) — EXERCISE 1 (ESL)

Grammar review Reduced relative clauses: active and passive

A relative clause gives information about a noun. We can often shorten it by leaving out the relative pronoun and changing the verb form.

Active reductions: verb + -ing
When the noun does the action, use an -ing phrase:
The woman who is waiting outside is my neighbor.
→ The woman waiting outside is my neighbor.

Passive reductions: being + past participle
When the noun receives an action that is in progress, use being + past participle:
the car that they are repairing → the car being repaired (by them)
the song that she is singing → the song being sung (by her)
This exercise practices the passive pattern. The by phrase identifies the person doing the action; it can often be left out.

Completed passive actions: past participle alone
Not every passive reduction needs being:
The letter that she wrote yesterday is on the desk.
→ The letter written yesterday is on the desk.
Use being repaired for an action in progress, but repaired for a completed action or a general description.

Watch out: These phrases describe nouns. Although being repaired looks like a passive gerund, it functions here as a passive participle phrase within a reduced relative clause.