Adjectives are words that modify nouns or pronouns, such as describing someone as "older" in the phrase "my sister, who is older than I am." If a group of words contains a subject and verb and acts as an adjective, it is called an adjective clause. Stripping a clause of its subject and verb leaves an adjective phrase, such as "keeping my family in the poorhouse" in "He is the man keeping my family in the poorhouse."