5 exercises — master defining vs non-defining relative clauses, correct pronoun choice (who/which/that/whose), and reduced clause forms in technical English.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Choose the sentence that correctly uses a defining relative clause in a technical context.
A defining (restrictive) relative clause identifies which specific thing is meant — it is essential to the meaning and uses NO commas. "The microservice that handles authentication" specifies which microservice. Option A uses commas, making it a non-defining clause — only correct if there is only one microservice. Option C is a dangling participial phrase. Option D uses "what" incorrectly (only used in noun clauses like "This is what I meant").
2 / 5
The load balancer, ___ distributes traffic across all pods, failed during the peak usage window.
This is a non-defining (non-restrictive) relative clause — identified by the commas surrounding it. Non-defining clauses use "which" (for things), never "that." "That" is reserved for defining clauses. "What" cannot introduce a relative clause. "Who" is used for people only. In technical documentation, non-defining clauses add extra information about something already uniquely identified: "The load balancer" is a specific system, so the clause is additional information.
3 / 5
The engineer ___ refactored the payment module last quarter has now moved to a different team.
"Who" is the subject relative pronoun for people. The engineer is the subject of "refactored," so the subject pronoun "who" is correct. "Whom" is the object pronoun (correct in "the engineer whom we promoted," not as the subject of "refactored"). "Which" refers to things, not people. "Whose" indicates possession ("the engineer whose PR was reverted").
4 / 5
The database ___ schema was migrated to the new format is now fully operational.
"Whose" indicates possession and is used for both people and things in formal English. "The database whose schema was migrated" = the database's schema was migrated. "Which" and "that" cannot introduce a possessive relationship — they would need to be followed by a verb, not a noun. "Whom" is an object pronoun for people only. In technical writing, "whose" is commonly used with inanimate objects: "the function whose return value is null," "the server whose uptime exceeded 99.9%."
5 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses a reduced relative clause in technical documentation?
A reduced relative clause omits the relative pronoun and auxiliary verb: "which was logged" → "logged." This is extremely common in technical writing for concision: "The error logged by the monitoring tool" is shorter and cleaner than "The error which was logged by the monitoring tool." Both are grammatically correct, but reduced clauses are preferred in API docs, READMEs, and incident reports. Option C has an erroneous "it." Option D uses the wrong participle form ("logging" implies active voice, but the error is passively logged).