Can we say "I saw my friend who was parking his car." ? Or is it correct to say "I saw my friend parking his car." ? If both of them are correct so in the second one the relative pronoun who is omitted?
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5They mean different things. With I saw my friend who was parking his car, you're saying you saw your friend - who happened to be parking his car when you first saw him, but that's potentially just a minor detail. With I saw my friend parking his car, the important thing is you saw the act of the car being parked - as it happens, by your friend, but it could have been someone else (the person who parked the car might be a minor detail).– FumbleFingersCommented Mar 11 at 0:06
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There is no pronoun omitted in #2. It's just like "I saw the sun shining." It doesn't even mean "I saw the sun, and the sun, it, was shining."– Yosef BaskinCommented Mar 11 at 4:26
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2 Answers
Both are grammatical and idiomatic. But they are nuanced differently.
"I saw my friend parking his car" simply states the condition in which you saw your friend. It's a bit like saying "I saw the man speaking to a policeman". "parking" and "speaking to a policeman" are vital to what is being said.
However if I say "I saw my friend, who was parking his car" - the fact that he was parking his car is presented as incidental to the fact that I saw my friend. It's like "I saw Jane at the paty - who was wearing bright green earrings". The important thing you are saying is that you saw Jane. Incidental to that was the colour of her earrings.
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Your answer does not address the OP's question, which was about whether a relative clause or a gerund-participial clause was preferable. Also, the OP's relative example was of the integrated one (no comma), whereas you have shown it as of the supplementary kind (with comma).– BillJCommented Mar 11 at 7:47
Both are grammatically correct, but they mean different things.
"I saw my friend who was parking his car." The clause beginning "who" identifies the friend. You saw your friend. Which friend did you see? The friend who was parking his car.
"I saw my friend parking his car" says that you saw the action of your friend parking his car.
BTW, the first sentence has what is called a "restrictive clause". You could have many friends, but which one did you see? The one who was parking his car. If you put a comma in front of it, "I saw my friend, who was parking his car", it becomes a non-restrictive clause. Now it does not distinguish this friend from some other friend, but simply gives additional information about the friend.
In all three cases, the real-world situation you are describing is probably the same: Your friend is parking his car, and you saw him do it. But the grammar is different. Just like, "My friend is tall" and "My friend is a tall person" mean essentially the same thing, but have different grammatical construction.
