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According to the book I am reading now, a relative clause ending with noun
must be followed by の. But sometimes I also find a relative clause ending with
noun that is followed by である.

Consider the following examples:

> A: 両親が日本人 **の** 学生はクラスの２０％をしめている。
>
> B: 両親が日本人 **である** 学生はクラスの２０％をしめている。

Literally it means

> The students whose parents are Japanese constitute 20% of the students in
> the class.

# Questions

  * When do we have to use の and である for a relative clause ending with a noun?

  * Is there any difference in nuance?
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2016-07-18T02:37:31.063
36743
2016-07-18T14:40:50.680
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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question
grammar relative-clauses
Relative clause ending with a noun should be followed by の or である? What is the difference?
> When do we have to use の and である for a relative clause ending with a noun?

The general tendency, if not the absolute rule, is that it would sound less
formal and more conversational if you used 「の」.

(Grammatically speaking, this 「の」 is **_appositional_**.)

「である」 would make the sentence sound more formal and/or academic. In any kind
of formal speech or writing, you would use 「である」 in that example sentence.

> Is there any difference in nuance?

The only difference in nuance is the level of formality as discussed above.
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2016-07-18T09:57:53.463
36751
2016-07-18T14:40:50.680
2016-07-18T14:40:50.680
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answer