If the predicate is a noun or adjective, there are some cases where you’ll use the pre-noun form instead of the plain form with だ[da]. We’ll discuss this more below!
Japanese Articles
How to form relative clauses in Japanese?
By: Kumiko Saeto Tue Jun 09 2026
JapaneseSentence Structure
A relative clause is a that is used to describe or modify a . For example, in “the photo that I took” the phrase “that I took” is a relative clause, because it describes the photo. Here is an example of a relative clause in Japanese:
relative clausenoun
これはきのう私が公園でとった写真です。
Kore wa kinō watashi ga kōen de totta shashin desu.
This is a photo (that) I took at the park yesterday.
Notice that in Japanese the relative clause comes before the noun! In fact, that’s one of the four main rules that you can usually follow to form a relative clause in Japanese:
The relative clause comes before the noun.
Use the plain form of the predicate.
There are no relative pronouns (e.g. “that” or “who”).
The subject of the relative clause is usually marked with が[ga].
In this post, we’ll explain how to apply those four rules, go through some examples and discuss some of the exceptions you’ll want to be aware of. Ready to have a look? Let’s get started!
How to form different types of relative clauses in Japanese?
In Japanese, there are four rules to follow for all types of relative clauses:
The relative clause in Japanese precedes the noun it modifies.
relative clausenounこれはきのう私が公園でとった写真です。
Kore wa kinō watashi ga kōen de totta shashin desu.
This is a photo (that) I took at the park yesterday.
The of the relative clause is usually in the plain form. This means that you won’t add polite endings like ます[masu] or です[desu] to the predicate of a relative clause.
Plain forms can come in various tenses and with a variety of different endings. Check out this chart of Japanese plain forms to see some of the possibilities!
Exception!
There are no relative pronouns in Japanese. This means, in Japanese there is no equivalent of the words like “which,” “that,” “who,” “whose,” or “where” that you often see at the beginning of a relative clause:
the photo
thatI tookthe park
whereI took the photothe woman
whoI photographedLuckily there is no particular grammar you’ll need to learn to replace these words, you can just leave them out!
The subject of a relative clause (if it’s present) is usually marked by が[ga] or sometimes の[no], but not by は[wa]. Compare:
きのう私は公園で写真をとった。
Kinō watashi wa kōen de shashin o totta
I took a photo at the park yesterday.
relative clauseこれはきのう私が公園でとった写真です。
Kore wa kinō watashi ga kōen de totta shashin desu.
This is a photo (that) I took at the park yesterday.
You’ll usually use が[ga] for the subject of a relative clause, but you can use の[no] if the relative clause is very short.
Exception!
You can still use は[wa] to mark the subject of a relative clause when you’re making a contrast.
冷凍食品は私はあまり買わない食べ物です。
Reitō shokuhin wa watashi wa amari kawanai tabemono desu.
Frozen food is a (type of) food that I rarely buy.
→ Using は[wa] here shows that I’m contrasting my shopping habits with those of others. It implies that other people buy frozen food a lot.
Let’s look now at some examples!
Example 1: Relative clause with a verb
Imagine we want to combine the following two sentences by using a relative clause:
きのう私は公園で写真をとりました。
Kinō watashi wa kōen de shashin o torimashita.
I took a photo at the park yesterday.
ここは公園です。
Koko wa kōen desu.
This place is the park.
The resulting sentence is given in the box below. Can you see how the four rules all apply here?
relative clausenoun ここはきのう私が写真をとった公園です。 Koko wa kinō watashi ga shashin o totta kōen desu. This place is the park (where) I took a photo yesterday. | |
Rule 1: | The relative clause precedes 公園[kōen](park). |
Rule 2: | Here we have replaced the polite verb from the original sentence with the equivalent plain form: とりました[torimashita] → とった[totta] |
Rule 3: | There is no Japanese relative pronoun meaning “where.” Instead, the word 公園[kōen](park) is just not present in the relative clause. |
Rule 4: | The subject 私[watashi](I) is followed by が[ga]. |
Example 2: Relative clause with a progressive verb
Let’s look, now at this sentence and use it to build a couple relative clauses. Notice that here, the verb is in the progressive, or ～ている[-te iru] form!
山本さんは本を読んでいます。
Yamamoto san wa hon o yonde imasu.
Ms. Yamamoto is reading a book.
Here, we can build a couple different relative clauses, with some notes about particular rules from the list.
relative clausenoun これは山本さんが読んでいる本です。 Kore wa Yamamoto san ga yonde iru hon desu. This is the book (that) Ms. Yamamoto is reading. | |
Rule 2: Predicate in the plain form | The verb of the relative clause, 読んでいる[yonde iru], is still progressive, but is also is plain, rather than polite. |
Rule 4: が[ga] instead of は[wa] | In this case, the relative clause is short enough that we could also have used の[no] after the subject of the relative clause: relative clausenoun これは山本さんの読んでいる本です。 Kore wa Yamamoto san no yonde iru hon desu. This is the book which Ms. Yamamoto is reading. |
relative clausenoun 山本さんは本を読んでいる人です。 Yamamoto san wa hon o yonde iru hito desu. Ms. Yamamoto is the person (who) is reading a book. | |
Rule 2: Predicate in the plain form | The verb of the relative clause, 読んでいる[yonde iru], is still progressive, but is also is plain, rather than polite. |
Rule 3: No relative pronouns | Notice that, since there is no relative pronoun, the relative clause does not have a subject in Japanese. |
Now let’s move on to some examples of relative clauses with different kinds of predicates!
Example 3: Relative clause with a noun predicate
Relative clauses with noun (e.g. “that is an X” or “who was a Y”) mostly follow the same four rules we saw above. Just remember that the state-of-being endings attached to nouns in these clauses are a bit different.
relative clausenoun 先月まで学生だった人はクラークさんです。 Sengetsu made gakusei datta hito wa Kurāku san desu. The person (who) was a student until last month is Mr. Clark. | |
Rule 1: Relative clause comes first | The description of the person comes before 人[hito](person). |
Rule 2: Predicate in the plain form | The plain form だった[datta] is used instead of the polite form でした[deshita]. |
Rule 3: No relative pronouns | There is no “who” in the Japanese clause, so the relative clause has no subject. |
Exception!
When a Japanese relative clause in the present tense and the predicate is a noun, you generally won’t use the positive state-of-being form of the noun. So…
⭐ Don’t use だ[da] at the end of a relative clause!
Instead, when translating an English clause like “that is an X” or “who are Xs,” you should usually use description noun + の[no] before the modified noun:
predicate noun + の [no]noun
新入生の方はこちらの部屋へ。
Shin’nyūsei no kata wa kochira no heya e.
Those (who are) new students, please proceed to the room here.
lit. New-student ones, please proceed to the room here.
You can’t do this if the relative clause is negative, though! There you’ll need to use a full relative clause.
relative clausenoun
新入生じゃない方はあちらの部屋へ進んでください。
Shin’nyūsei ja nai kata wa achira no heya e susunde kudasai.
Those (who) are not new students, please proceed to the room over there.
Example 4: Relative clause with an adjective predicate
As above, relative clauses with adjective predicates (e.g. “that was tall” or “who was faster than me”) mostly follow the four general rules. Just remember that you’ll need to use the plain forms of the adjective conjugation endings.
relative clausenoun さっきまで暖かかった風が、急に冷たくなった。 Sakki made atatakakatta kaze ga, kyūni tsumetaku natta. The wind (which) was warm until a while ago suddenly turned cold. | |
Rule 1: Relative clause comes first | The description comes before 風[kaze](wind). |
Rule 2: Predicate in the plain form | The plain form 暖かかった[atatakakatta] is used instead of the polite form あたたかかったです[atatakakatta desu]. |
Rule 3: No relative pronouns | There is no Japanese parallel to “which.” |
Exception!
When a Japanese relative clause in the present tense and the predicate is an adjective, you will not use a conjugated adjective.
Instead, you’ll use the pre-noun form of the adjective. For example:
relative clausenoun
クラスの中でピアノが一番上手な学生は新一君です。
Kurasu no naka de piano ga ichiban jōzu na gakusei wa Shin'ichi kun desu.
The student (who) is the most skilled at the piano in class is Shin’ichi.
→ 上手[jōzu] is a na-adjective, so before a noun it is followed by な[na]
Compare that with the form you would use if 上手[jōzu] was a normal predicate:
conjugated adjective
新一君はクラスの中でピアノが一番上手です・ 上手だ。
Shin'ichi kun wa kurasu no naka de piano ga ichiban jōzu desu / jōzu da.
Shin’ichi is the most skilled at the piano in class.
As we saw for nouns, though, if the sentence is negative, you will use a conjugated and not a pre-noun form.
Which Japanese nouns can take a relative clause?
Whether a noun in a sentence can be modified by a clause can be generally determined by the particle that would have followed the noun you’re describing, if the relative clause was an independent sentence.
This is because you need to be able to figure out the role the noun you’re describing is supposed to play in the relative clause, given that there is no particle signaling what role it should play.
Let’s use this independent sentence to help us go through the relative clauses below.
お母さんは朝から台所で子供とお弁当を作りました。
Okāsan wa asa kara daidokoro de kodomo to obentō o tsukurimashita.
The mother prepared a box lunch with her child in the kitchen from the early morning.
Now, we’ll turn this sentence into several relative clauses. Look carefully at which particle follows the noun you’re describing in the sentence above.
Clause describes… | Particle | Relative Clause |
|---|---|---|
お母さん okāsan mother | は[wa]が[ga] | 朝から台所で子供とお弁当を作ったお母さん asa kara daidokoro de kodomo to obentō o tsukutta okāsan the mother (who) prepared a box lunch with her child in the kitchen from the morning |
台所 daidokoro the kitchen | で[de] | お母さんが朝から子供とお弁当を作った台所 okāsan ga asa kara kodomo to obentō o tsukutta daidokoro the kitchen (where) the mother prepared a box lunch with her child from the morning |
お弁当 obentō the box lunch | を[o] | お母さんが朝から台所で子供と作ったお弁当 okāsan ga asa kara daidokoro de kodomo to tsukutta obentō the box lunch (which) the mother prepared with her child in the kitchen from the morning |
子供 kodomo the child | と[to] | ❌ お母さんが朝から台所でお弁当を作った子供 okāsan ga asa kara daidokoro de obentō o tsukutta kodomo the child the mother prepared a box lunch in the kitchen from the morning The phrase above does not work on its own, because the meaning of と[to](with) is lost. You can make it work if you add that meaning back in with a word like いっしょに[isshoni](together): ✅ お母さんが朝から台所でいっしょにお弁当を作った子供 okāsan ga asa kara daidokoro de isshoni obentō o tsukutta kodomo the child (with whom) the mother prepared a box lunch in the kitchen from the morning |
朝 asa the morning | に[ni]から[kara] | ❌ お母さんが台所で子供とお弁当を作った朝 okāsan ga daidokoro de kodomo to obentō o tsukutta asa the morning when the mother prepared a box lunch with her child in the kitchen The phrase above does not work on its own, because the meaning of から[kara](from) is lost. If the original sentence had given a simple time with に[ni], as in 朝に[asa ni](in the morning), the above relative clause would be acceptable. |
As you can see from the above examples, the particle that comes immediately after the noun determines the noun’s function like the subject or the object of a verb. In English, we often rely on prepositions to supplement the meaning, like “with who” or “from which.” In Japanese too, if the deleted particle needs more indicators to make sense, we can add supplementary words to make up for the missing particle, like the case of と[to] in the table above.
To sum up
In this post we discussed how to form and use relative clauses in Japanese. Here’s what you should remember:
There are four basic rules for forming Japanese relative clauses:
The relative clause comes before the noun.
Use the plain form of the predicate.
There are no relative pronouns like “that” or “to whom.”
The subject of the relative clause is usually marked with が[ga].
Because there are no relative pronouns, you need to be sure that the role the noun you’re describing plays in the relative clause is clear.
Ready to practice? Have a look at these Japanese relative clause activities!
