Which

Hello, Reza95, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange.

@Reza95 posted:

What kind of dependent clause are the ones in the following sentence?  adjective clause or adverb? if it is an adverb clause, is the "which" subordinating conjunction?

He forgot their anniversary, which made her very upset

"Which" is a relative pronoun introducing a sentential relative clause. "Which" refers to the propositional content of the preceding clause: "[his forgetting their anniversary] made her very upset."

@Reza95 posted:

The Internet contains a lot of jobs websites, which people can use to start a career

"Which" works differently in this other sentence. "Which" refers to the noun phrase "jobs websites" and introduces a nonrestrictive relative clause. You seem to call relative clauses "adjective clauses," as many ESL learners do.

It's ok, which is a relative clause but my question was about the dependent clause in both sentences. As you said the dependent clause in the second sentence is adjective clause. what about in the first sentence?

@Reza95 posted:

It's ok, which is a relative clause . . .

No, Reza95, "which" is not a relative clause. "Which" introduces the relative clauses in your example. The relative clause of each example contains "which" and the words that come after "which."

@Reza95 posted:

. . . but my question was about the dependent clause in both sentences. As you said the dependent clause in the second sentence is adjective clause. what about in the first sentence?

In both examples, the clause introduced by "which" is a nonrestrictive (i.e., nondefining) relative clause. If you like to use the term "adjective clause" instead of "relative clause," I won't take the term away from you.

In the first example, with the sentential relative clause, the antecedent of "which" is the propositional content of the main clause as a whole. In the second example, the antecedent of "which" is a noun phrase ("websites").

Thank you very much. Completely got it.