Editing Relative clause (section)

====Hawaiian====

Relative clauses in [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]]<ref>Alexander, W. D., ''Introduction to Hawaiian Grammar'', Dover, 2004 (originally 1864): 45-47.</ref> are avoided unless they are short.

If in English a relative clause would have a copula and an adjective, in Hawaiian the antecedent is simply modified by the adjective: "The honest man" instead of "the man who is honest". If the English relative clause would have a copula and a noun, in Hawaiian an appositive is used instead: "Paul, an apostle" instead of "Paul, who was an apostle".

If the English relative pronoun would be the subject of an intransitive or passive verb, in Hawaiian a participle is used instead of a full relative clause: "the people fallen" instead of "the people who fell"; "the thing given" instead of "the thing that was given". But when the relative clause's antecedent is a person, the English relative pronoun would be the subject of the relative clause, and the relative clause's verb is active and transitive, a relative clause is used and it begins with the relative pronoun ''nana'': ''The one who me (past) sent'' = "the one who sent me".

If in English a relative pronoun would be the object of a relative clause, in Hawaiian the possessive form is used so as to treat the antecedent as something possessed: ''the things of me to have seen'' = "the things that I saw"; ''Here is theirs to have seen'' = This is what they saw".