Reduced Relative Clauses Exercises

A reduced relative clause is a shorter version of a full relative clause, created by removing the pronoun and any auxiliary verb. For active meanings, use the present participle (-ing): "The man who is sitting in the corner" becomes "The man sitting in the corner." For passive meanings, use the past participle (-ed/-en): "The book which was written by Hemingway" becomes "The book written by Hemingway." The meaning stays the same, but the sentence becomes more concise.

Reduction is only possible when the relative pronoun is the subject of the clause — you cannot reduce object relative clauses. It works with both defining and non-defining clauses: "Anyone wanting to apply should email us" (defining) and "The Thames, flowing through London, is England's longest river" (non-defining). Reduced clauses are common in journalism, academic writing, and formal reports because they save space without losing clarity. Cambridge B2 First and C1 Advanced exams test this skill in sentence transformation tasks, asking you to rewrite full clauses as participle phrases.