Participial Adjective

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Paperclip  #369341  Wed, 23 May 07 02:18 PM
Hello,

I want to know if a "full" relative sentence can be made as an adjective/attribute like in the German language,  for example: "Der Mann, der gerade ein Buch liest, ist mein Vater." (the man, who is reading a book, is my father), becomes: "Der gerade ein Buch lesende Mann ist mein Vater." (the a book reading man is my father??). I've done some research, but all that I could find was "interesting man", "broken glass", or some similiar short constructions. By the way, I'm sorry if I wrote the terminologies wrong.

Thank you.
  
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Marius Hancu  #369342  Wed, 23 May 07 02:21 PM
the book-reading man is my father

a bit strange in English
  
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Paperclip  #369357  Wed, 23 May 07 02:58 PM
Thank you for the fast reply. I noticed that we put a dash between the object and the verb, right? However, what if the sentence is different, like: "The man, who sat on the balcony yesterday, is my father."? Maybe it becomes: "The yesterday on the balcony-sitting man is my father."? Is there a limit to this? It is said that German's "long participial adjective" is not used in speaking generally, so maybe the Germans would say that constructions like that is strange too. But don't count on me about that because I'm just a learner.
  
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