Contact Clauses — Omitting the Relative Pronoun in Technical English
5 exercises — practise omitting the relative pronoun in object relative clauses in technical writing.
0 / 23 completed
1 / 23
Which sentence correctly omits the relative pronoun because it would be the object of the clause in a bug report?
"The bug we found yesterday only reproduces..." is correct: "that" would be the object of "found" ("we found that"), so it can be freely omitted, forming a contact clause. Option B drops "we" as well, leaving an ungrammatical reduced clause. Option C inserts "is" incorrectly. Option D keeps "that" but mismatches it as a subject, which produces a different, incorrect meaning.
2 / 23
Choose the sentence that correctly keeps the relative pronoun because omitting it would be ungrammatical, since it functions as the subject.
"The engineer who fixed the memory leak also updated the documentation" is correct: "who" is the subject of "fixed", and subject relative pronouns in restrictive clauses cannot be omitted in standard written English. Option B omits the required subject pronoun, producing a run-on, ungrammatical sentence. Option C incorrectly uses commas instead of a relative pronoun. Option D wrongly substitutes the object form "whom" for a subject role.
3 / 23
Which sentence correctly forms a contact clause in a code review comment, omitting "that" before an object relative clause?
"This is the exact edge case the reviewer flagged last week" is correct: "that" ("the reviewer flagged that") is the omitted object, and dropping it is standard, natural English. Option B reorders the words incorrectly, breaking the clause. Option C inserts an unnecessary "is". Option D uses "who", which is reserved for people, not for "edge case".
4 / 23
Select the sentence that correctly omits "which" in an object relative clause describing a configuration file, keeping the sentence natural in technical writing.
"The config file the deployment script reads has moved to a new path" is correct: "which" ("the deployment script reads which") is the omitted object of "reads", and the contact clause reads naturally. Option B reverses subject and object, changing the meaning to say the file itself reads the script. Option C keeps "which" but adds a redundant resumptive pronoun "it", which is ungrammatical. Option D scrambles the word order entirely.
5 / 23
Which sentence correctly forms a contact clause with a stranded preposition, omitting the object relative pronoun in a dependency-tracking note?
"The dependency the module relies on is no longer maintained" is correct: even with the stranded preposition "on", the object relative pronoun "that" can still be freely omitted, producing a natural contact clause. Option B drops the preposition "on" entirely, breaking the meaning of "relies on". Option C wrongly uses "who", reserved for people, not for "dependency". Option D scrambles the preposition's position, producing an ungrammatical sentence.
6 / 23
You're writing the description for a Pull Request to update the authentication API. The change involves adding validation on the user's JWT token.
Which of the following sentences correctly uses a contact clause omitting the relative pronoun?
This focuses on correct usage in a PR description. 'Ensuring it's properly formatted' acts as an infinitive phrase modifying 'validates' – this is the correct way to omit the relative pronoun after an object clause in this context. Options B and D incorrectly use 'that' and add unnecessary phrasing, while option C uses 'its' which is incorrect.
7 / 23
David, a senior developer, posted this comment on a code review: 'The database connection pool size should be dynamically adjusted based on the current load.'
Which sentence best demonstrates how David could have written this more concisely, omitting the relative pronoun?
This tests object relative clauses with a stranded preposition. 'Which is being monitored' correctly introduces the subordinate clause, functioning as an object relative clause. It's crucial to include the stranded preposition ('which') when using this structure. Options A and D are incorrect because they unnecessarily repeat 'that' or add redundant phrasing.
8 / 23
You're documenting a configuration file for a new microservice. The file contains settings related to the service's communication with external APIs.
Which of the following sentences correctly uses a contact clause omitting the relative pronoun?
This explores a different context – a configuration file. 'That the service uses to interact…' is grammatically correct because 'the service' is the object of the verb 'uses'. Including 'which' would be redundant and unnatural in this technical writing style. Option A and D are less precise and less common phrasing.
9 / 23
Maria sent the following message to the team standup: 'We're investigating a performance bottleneck in the data processing pipeline.'
Which of the following sentences correctly uses a contact clause omitting the relative pronoun?
This focuses on standup communication. 'Which is causing…' correctly introduces the subordinate clause as an object relative clause. The key here is recognizing that 'which' functions as a connector between the main clause ('We're investigating...') and the descriptive information about the bottleneck. Options A and D are incorrect because they unnecessarily use 'that' or add extra words.
10 / 23
You're writing the description for a Pull Request to update the authentication API. The change involves adding validation on the user's JWT token.
Which of the following sentences correctly uses a contact clause omitting the relative pronoun?
This focuses on correct usage in a PR description. 'Ensuring it's properly formatted' acts as an infinitive phrase modifying 'validates' – this is the correct way to omit the relative pronoun after an object clause in this context. Options B and D incorrectly use 'that' and add unnecessary phrasing, while option C uses 'its' which is incorrect.
11 / 23
David, a senior developer, posted this comment on a code review: 'The database connection pool size should be dynamically adjusted based on the current load.'
Which sentence best demonstrates how David could have written this more concisely, omitting the relative pronoun?
This tests object relative clauses with a stranded preposition. 'Which is being monitored' correctly introduces the subordinate clause, functioning as an object relative clause. It's crucial to include the stranded preposition ('which') when using this structure. Options A and D are incorrect because they unnecessarily repeat 'that' or add redundant phrasing.
12 / 23
You're documenting a configuration file for a new microservice. The file contains settings related to the service's communication with external APIs.
Which of the following sentences correctly uses a contact clause omitting the relative pronoun?
This explores a different context – a configuration file. 'That the service uses to interact…' is grammatically correct because 'the service' is the object of the verb 'uses'. Including 'which' would be redundant and unnatural in this technical writing style. Option A and D are less precise and less common phrasing.
13 / 23
Maria sent the following message to the team standup: 'We're investigating a performance bottleneck in the data processing pipeline.'
Which of the following sentences correctly uses a contact clause omitting the relative pronoun?
This focuses on standup communication. 'Which is causing…' correctly introduces the subordinate clause as an object relative clause. The key here is recognizing that 'which' functions as a connector between the main clause ('We're investigating...') and the descriptive information about the bottleneck. Options A and D are incorrect because they unnecessarily use 'that' or add extra words.
14 / 23
You're writing the description for a Pull Request to update the authentication API. The change involves adding validation on the user's JWT token.
Which of the following sentences correctly uses a contact clause omitting the relative pronoun?
This focuses on correct usage in a PR description. 'Ensuring it's properly formatted' acts as an infinitive phrase modifying 'validates' – this is the correct way to omit the relative pronoun after an object clause in this context. Options B and D incorrectly use 'that' and add unnecessary phrasing, while option C uses 'its' which is incorrect.
15 / 23
David, a senior developer, posted this comment on a code review: 'The database connection pool size should be dynamically adjusted based on the current load.'
Which sentence best demonstrates how David could have written this more concisely, omitting the relative pronoun?
This tests object relative clauses with a stranded preposition. 'Which is being monitored' correctly introduces the subordinate clause, functioning as an object relative clause. It's crucial to include the stranded preposition ('which') when using this structure. Options A and D are incorrect because they unnecessarily repeat 'that' or add redundant phrasing.
16 / 23
You're documenting a configuration file for a new microservice. The file contains settings related to the service's communication with external APIs.
Which of the following sentences correctly uses a contact clause omitting the relative pronoun?
This explores a different context – a configuration file. 'That the service uses to interact…' is grammatically correct because 'the service' is the object of the verb 'uses'. Including 'which' would be redundant and unnatural in this technical writing style. Option A and D are less precise and less common phrasing.
17 / 23
Maria sent the following message to the team standup: 'We're investigating a performance bottleneck in the data processing pipeline.'
Which of the following sentences correctly uses a contact clause omitting the relative pronoun?
This focuses on standup communication. 'Which is causing…' correctly introduces the subordinate clause as an object relative clause. The key here is recognizing that 'which' functions as a connector between the main clause ('We're investigating...') and the descriptive information about the bottleneck. Options A and D are incorrect because they unnecessarily use 'that' or add extra words.
18 / 23
Sarah is writing a Slack message to report an issue with the new image processing service. The service consistently fails when processing images larger than 1MB.
Which sentence correctly uses a contact clause omitting the relative pronoun?
This question tests using a contact clause with a prepositional phrase. The key is to replace 'which' with a more concise phrasing like 'the fact that'. Options A and B use unnecessary relative pronouns. Option C correctly uses the structure, while option D is too verbose.
19 / 23
During a code review, Ben comments: 'The API endpoint should return a 400 status code if the input data is invalid.'
Which sentence best demonstrates how Ben could have written this comment using an omitted contact clause?
This question focuses on using an omitted contact clause within a technical comment. Option 1 utilizes the most concise phrasing, effectively omitting 'which' and creating a natural-sounding statement. The other options are unnecessarily wordy or use redundant phrasing.
20 / 23
During a standup update, Alex says: 'The database query performance is significantly slower than expected.'
Which sentence demonstrates the best way to phrase this using an omitted contact clause?
This scenario tests using an omitted contact clause in a conversational setting. Option 1 provides the most natural and concise phrasing for reporting a technical issue during a standup update. It avoids unnecessary repetition of 'which' while clearly conveying the problem.
21 / 23
Elena is drafting a Slack message to inform the team about an issue with the new deployment pipeline. The pipeline consistently fails to deploy applications containing more than 500 lines of code. Which sentence best demonstrates how Elena could have communicated this problem using an omitted contact clause?
This option directly states the problem (applications > 500 lines) and its consequence (deployment issues). Omitting the relative pronoun creates a concise and efficient way to convey this information in technical communication. Options A and B are too verbose, while Option D is grammatically awkward.
22 / 23
You're writing a Pull Request description for a change that improves the performance of database queries. The query now uses an index to speed up retrieval times. Which sentence correctly uses a contact clause omitting the relative pronoun?
This option is the most concise and direct. It clearly states what action was taken (adding an index) and its effect (improved query performance). Omitting the relative pronoun avoids redundancy and streamlines the communication for a technical audience.
23 / 23
David, a senior developer, posted this comment on a code review: 'The error handling should be improved to gracefully handle unexpected exceptions.' Which of the following sentences correctly uses an omitted contact clause?
This option clearly establishes the required action (improving error handling) and its purpose (gracefully managing exceptions). Omitting the relative pronoun makes the statement more direct and efficient, aligning with professional technical communication standards. Options A and D are overly verbose.
What will I practise in "Contact Clauses — Omitting the Relative Pronoun in Technical English — IT Grammar Exercise"?
Practise correctly omitting "that"/"which"/"who" in object relative clauses (contact clauses) and recognizing when the pronoun must stay because it is the
How many exercises are in this module?
This module has 23 multiple-choice exercises, each with instant feedback and a full explanation of the correct answer.
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Every exercise is written by the CoderSlingo team, drawing on real workplace English used in IT roles, then reviewed for accuracy and clarity.