what is the clause in the sentence?

[eddy143]

hi there, i'm please with the way people do ask and answer questions in this forum. More ink to yoour pens and more great thoughts to your memories.
well, i have a piece of question here:
(1) the boy who is reading a book is Tony. (reading a book).
what is the clause in this sentence and what clause might that be?
thanks.

[Gillnetter]

hi there, i'm please with the way people do ask and answer questions in this forum. More ink to yoour pens and more great thoughts to your memories.
well, i have a piece of question here:
(1) the boy who is reading a book is Tony. (reading a book).
what is the clause in this sentence and what clause might that be?
thanks.

Who is the boy?
What is the boy doing?

Take out what the boy is doing - that is the clause.

[Soup]

hi there, i'm please with the way people do ask and answer questions in this forum. More ink to yoour pens and more great thoughts to your memories.
well, i have a piece of question here:
(1) the boy who is reading a book is Tony. (reading a book).
what is the clause in this sentence and what clause might that be?
thanks.

A clause has a subject and a verb:

• The boy who is reading a book is Tony.

Clauses introduced by who are called relative clauses. Relative clauses are dependent clauses: they cannot stand on their own (That is, if you said as a statement, not a as question, "...who is reading a book", it wouldn't make much sense. It needs more information.)

Relative clauses act as modifiers: they tell us more about the noun they modify. In your example, the relative clause who is reading a book tells us more about the noun boy.

Relative clauses can be restrictive or non-restrictive. Here's an example:

• A suitcase that has no handles is useless.
• A suitcase, that has no handles, is useless.

The second sentence above means, a suitcase is useless. Obviously, that's not true. A suitcase is useful. The correct relative clause is restrictive, so no commas:

• A suitcase that has no handles is useless.

With your example, you can change the meaning of the sentence by adding commas (make the clause non-restrictive) if you wanted it to mean "by the way" (added information that's not essential to the meaning of the sentence):

• The boy, who (by the way) is reading a book, is Tony.

Your original sentence has a restrictive relative clause:

• The boy who is reading a book is Tony.

Relative clauses are often reduced, like this:

• The boy reading the book is Tony.
• Tony is the boy reading the book.

The phrase reading a book is a reduced relative clause.

[eddy143]

what a hot soup i have here! You are my genius! thanks a million. Is well understood.