Adjective Clauses | Adjective Clause Connectors Examples | Breaking English

hi everyone i'm going to talk to you about adjective clauses in this video and why they're important in writing how you can make them and how to avoid some of the most common adjective clause errors that i see in writing okay so first let's look at why they even matter all right so if you take a look at these two sentences you can see they're two great sentences but they're just two simple sentences which is fine you can use two simple sentences when you write but you don't always want to have two simple sentences you want to have more variety every once in a while you want to have simple compound complex sentences all in your writing okay and you do that naturally when you speak and when you write um but i want to show you exactly what adjective clauses are doing so the races at night it is very long great two sentences so you can combine these two sentences and let me show you what that looks like all right so here you can see i've combined them the race that is very long is at night so that's what it looks like when you combine two sentences and create an adjective clause out of the second one and why is this important again you want to have variety in your speech and in your writing and it also makes your writing look a little bit more academic so let's look at how to make these types of sentences but first off what's a clause okay i'm going to be using that word a lot in this video a clause is just a group of words with a subject and a verb and that might sound confusing as well but let me just give you an example a group of words any group of words okay but that has a complete idea all right so for example uh jamie is talking that's a group of words jamie's talking but it has a subject and it has a verb who or what is doing the talking jamie so that's the subject and what is jamie doing talking so that's the verb verbs are actions or states so jamie is talking is actually a clause because it's a group of words that has a subject and a verb jamie is talking now when we talk about adjective clauses we're talking about a group of words with a subject and a verb but that acts like an adjective but what's an adjective so an adjective is a word that describes people places things ideas nouns adjectives describe nouns so like this marker i have a marker what color is it it's blue so um blue marker helps me to understand what kind of marker it is it's a marker but it's a blue one okay so we use adjectives to help us understand more about the thing that's being described okay or talked about so when we say adjective clause we're talking about an adjective it's describing something or someone but it's a long one and that's what i like to call them is just like long adjectives okay so i'm going to show you how to make them all right so let's go back to that very first sentence i use in the example we have two sentences the race is at night it is very long two sentences two simple sentences now when we do that would we write two sentences that actually have some repeated or common idea in them we can combine them so let's look at this the race is at night it is very long what does it mean it means the race so here we have the race and it so we're talking about it the same thing in both sentences and when we do that we can actually combine them okay now the first way to combine sentences to create adjective clauses is by using subject pronouns subject relative clause pronouns don't worry if you you don't need to know that name okay but let me just tell you what they are who uh that which okay those relative pronouns are who that which whose okay you don't know you don't need to know the names of them you just need to know how they act okay so these the important thing to understand is these are subjects um they replace the subject of a sentence okay so we're going to say okay this idea and this idea are the same so let's take this second sentence and turn it into a big long adjective an adjective clause to describe this thing that is the same as this thing this is a thing it's a noun we need adjectives to describe nouns let's turn this sentence into a big long adjective an adjective clause to describe the race to tell us more about the race so what we need to do in order to do that is we take away that period first of all and then notice this word it is actually the subject of the second sentence and here's the verb so since this is the subject we can remove that subject and we have to replace it with a new subject okay a relative clause or adjective clause subject okay so when we're describing a thing like the race we're going to use the words that or which because those are the words that we use to describe things now if that were a person we would use who or that and possession is down here i'll talk to you about that later okay but we're going to replace the word it it's the subject of the second sentence we're going to replace it with a new subject okay and i'm just gonna say uh which which is a nice word it sounds nice and academic okay but now the next thing we need to do because it's not done the races at night which is very long that doesn't work okay because remember this is now going to act as an adjective and it's describing this word way over here so if this is going to describe this they have to be close to each other they have to be right next to each other okay so we need to move this whole clause over here okay so okay so let's look at what i did the race which is very long is that nine now it's done okay so now what we've done is we've taken that second sentence and we turned it into an adjective a long adjective and adjective clause to describe the race more adjective clauses and all adjectives are so great because they help give us more information about what it is the person's talking about so maybe if you said the race which race this one that one which race oh the race that's very long oh that race yes that one right and you sometimes you need really a lot more information the race that's very long that is in colorado that takes people 20 hours to complete sometimes you need to add many adjective clauses to describe describe describe identify identify identify let's look at another example i know a man he runs a lot two simple sentences we can combine those because they both share a common idea about the same person and that is i know a man he those two words refer to the same person so let's combine these two sentences let's turn this second sentence into a big long adjective but first thing we need to do is take away this period and take away this subject remember this is the subject of this second sentence so we need to replace this subject with one of these ones which one are we going to choose well we're talking about a person this time so when it's a person you can use who or you can use that so i'm going to use and just so you know we use both of these words very often but i will say that the word that is the most common especially when we're speaking but when you're writing you might want to sound more academic by using which for things and who for people so i'm going to use that though okay i know a man and then i'm gonna put that okay i know a man that runs a lot and actually now it's done it's just done already okay you don't need to do anything else and the reason that it's done now is because the noun the thing that we're describing with this adjective clause happens to be right next to it already so we don't have to move this anywhere but if we were going to describe another part of the sentence we would have to move it but here we're describing man it's right there so we don't have to move it okay now you could also have said who i know a man who runs a lot they're perfect let me give you another tip though about these types of adjective clauses and that is that if we happen to use a name of a person like if i had said if i had said i know chris that's a specific name of a person so specific i know who it is you probably know who it is that's why i'm using the name right so if we already know who it is i don't really need to describe him to help you understand who he is so anything i say to describe him after his name is not an adjective well it acts like one but it's just extra information so here this is what it would look like i know chris who runs a lot now the only difference is we need to put a comma now okay and if you don't really get that right all the time it's fine it's not that big of a deal i don't think it is but you put a comma here only because this information is now extra information so it's kind of like when we're talking we would just pause and then add it i know chris who runs a lot yeah it's just extra information okay but whenever you're using a comma you can never ever ever use the word that after it when you're using an adjective clause you can only use who or which okay or some other ones okay i know chris who runs a lot another way you could do it with person's name and this probably will sound better chris who lives in l.a runs a lot now this information is an adjective clause but because we already know who chris is it's just extra information so we need to separate it comma comma separate it and when we're talking we actually pause chris that chris who lives in l.a runs a lot okay so that's with people's names or like the name of a city or something like that right but if it's not a name of a person and you had just said if you had just said i know a man i'm like who there's like bazillion men in the world which one are you talking about so the way to explain who that is so that everybody understands who you're talking about then uh you use an adjective clause right so let's say there's three men over there three okay one likes uh to run a lot one likes to um decorate his house and one likes to go to the beach so i know a man which one there's three which one do you know oh the man i know a man who runs a lot okay so when you add that oh the man that one the one who runs a lot now this adjective clause is helping everyone who's listening and reading understand which one you're talking about that's why they're useful and this is how you create the adjective clause adjective clauses with subject pronouns now let's talk about the ones with object pronouns now here i have two new sentences aisha bought new shoes she got them online all right so let's combine them can we do that first off let's see we need to check that there is the same topic in both sentences the same idea right so aisha bought new shoes she so aisha she got them then is the shoes so actually we have a lot of things that are the same that we can reduce reduce combine combine but let's let's focus on describing those shoes okay we want to know more about those shoes what do you mean you got new shoes what so let's turn this sentence into a nice adjective clause but look at this look at this sentence where's the subject she where's the verb god object not every sentence has an object but this one does she got them then them is the object so let's turn this sentence into an adjective clause that describes the shoes a little bit more but be careful because this time since the shoes are them and them as an object we need to use an object pronoun here we have our object pronouns whom that and which okay so we're describing them them is shoes so remember from before whom and that can be for people notice this time we have um there okay and that in which can be for things okay so we're talking about shoes so let's use that or which let's use which it just sounds more academic okay aisha bought new shoes she got take that out them take them out replace it with one of these the right one right i'm going to put which i should bought new shoes she got witch online wait a minute no that's not right now what you need to do with this one the extra step is you actually have to move this word to the beginning of this sentence okay or clause aisha bought new shoes which she got nothing there online i bought new shoes which she got online oh those shoes those ones now i know which ones you're talking about you could say that i bought new shoes that she bought online you could say that okay let's take a look at another sentence like this but to describe a person okay here's my new one i know a woman i saw her at the la marathon two nice sentences we can combine them i know a woman i saw her so we have a woman and her are the same person so let's combine these two sentences let's turn this second one into a nice long adjective clause to describe more about the woman because what how many women do you know there's so many which one are you talking about right okay i know a woman period i saw her at the la marathon now we're describing her look at this sentence i is the subject saw is the verb her is the object so if we are going to replace this because this and that are the same person so we do need to eliminate this because it's the object we need to replace it with an object pronoun okay now in this case we're talking about a person so it would be appropriate to use whom or that okay now if you want to sound more academic because you're writing i recommend using whom if you want to just make everyone get annoyed with you while you're talking use whom please don't ever use that while you're i mean people are going to hate me for saying that but nobody uses that when they talk i would use the word that if i were talking okay but if i'm writing i would use whom it shows that you have control right okay in your academic control okay i know a woman i saw let's imagine we're writing home at belly marathon now remember we have to move that home way over here okay so we'll move it over here okay and i'm going to rewrite it here we are i know a woman which woman whom i saw at the l.a marathon that oh that one yeah there's still a lot but still it helps okay um so we've described the woman with this nice long adjective clause we used whom as the object pronoun we sell the subject we say the verb you could easily have just said that also i know a woman that i saw at the ellie marathon okay yeah i just want to give you one more example of the type with the object pronoun when we're using a person's specific name just to give you another example with the commas all right jen runs a lot i saw her okay her and jen same person jen runs a lot i saw her at the la marathon i'm going to use this second sentence and turn it into an adjective clause to describe jen okay now over here the word that refers to jen is an object right here's subject here's verb this is an object i'm going to take that object out we're going to replace it with whom or that or you could even say who you could when we're talking right you could even say who people do that okay in this case and this time look at the word we're describing we're describing jen that's a way over here at the beginning of the sentence that means this whole thing needs to move way over here so i've done it now i have jen whom i sought the la marathon runs a lot so now what i've done is i'm describing jen with this big long adjective clause that i took from that second sentence but remember jen is a specific person if i say jen that's because i know you know who she is so we don't have to describe anymore instead when we add an adjective clause right after a person's name that just means we're giving extra information so we need to add those commas here and here so when we're talking which i would never say whom when i'm talking so i would say that or who who i would say even though it's not supposed to be grammatically correct whatever sometimes when we talk we aren't grammatically correct it's fine remember after comma can't use that ever ever ever ever okay so jen who i saw the ellie marathon runs a lot that's how i would say it but if i'm writing i would write that's what i would do all right so that's that for adjective clauses with object pronouns let's look at the word whose okay so here we're talking about possession we're going to combine these two sentences to create a nice sentence with an adjective clause i know a runner her strava posts are inspiring strava is a social media platform for runners cyclists things like that so her posts on strava are whoa they're so inspiring okay um well which runner are you talking about which one who right okay so let's turn this into the adjective clause to describe the runner okay and we can do that because a runner and her strava posts her post she owns them those are hers her and the runner are the same person so we can do that okay so what we're going to do is we're going to describe the runner we're going to eliminate the word her and we're going to replace it take out the period too we're going to replace it with the word who's that's the word we use for possession but we keep the thing that's being possessed her posts whose posts her posts okay so it's the same i know a runner whose strava posts are inspiring okay so that is how we use who's two more tips these aren't technically called adjective clauses but whatever they do the same thing um the pronouns that we use for them in this case we're going to use where and when those are words that we use they're not even pronouns but whatever they act like them they act like the the same thing okay so i want to show you in this in this video i know a place you ran a race there okay so the word there refers to a place so let's combine these two sentences let's turn this one into a nice adjective clause that describes the place which place i know a place you ran a race there now this is actually in the object position you can say call it that subject verb this is the object okay but this this i'm just going to call it object position and okay all of this all right but we're we're focusing on the word there there refers to a location when we're talking about location where we can use the word where okay so let's use this move this to the front of this adjective clause take away the period and now we say i know a place where you ran a race i know a place where you ran a race okay that that works that's now we've combined them and we've used the word where because we're talking about location how about this i remember a time i ran with you then then refers to a time let's combine these two sentences let's use this one turn it into an adjective clause to describe a time well when we're referring to time the word then refers to time let's use the word when okay so we're going to take the word then out we're going to replace it with when but because this is not the subject of the sentence this is coming way at the end we can just call it object position let's move it over here to the front of this sentence take away the period and now we have i remember a time when i ran with you nice okay now there is a lot more you can do here with adjective clauses we can reduce them we can move prepositions around and all that but i'm not going over that in this video i actually go over it in another video on reduced adjective clauses which i highly recommend watching because it is so useful for when we're speaking we use reduced adjective clauses but now i want to talk about how to avoid the most common adjective clause errors that i see first type of error that i see with adjective clauses is that students will put that adjective clause too far away from the thing it is describing for example a woman walked by me that beat me in the race i have a great adjective clause here it's right here that beat me in the race but what is it describing it's supposed to be describing a woman but look how far away it is from that word it makes it hard for the reader to follow who you're describing easy fix just move that adjective clause right there a woman that beat me in the race walked by me period that's it move the adjective clause right next to the word is describing it should come after the word it's describing number two the second most common mistake i see is that students will not use proper subject verb agreement within the adjective clause so look at this a woman that run in my neighborhood is a pro so we have a great adjective clause here that describes a woman okay this is it but look at that the word run is missing the s why do we need to have an s there because the verb inside of the adjective clause has to agree with the thing the adjective clause is describing and in this case a woman is singular it's third person singular so you want that third person singular s on there now if it were plural if it were plural we said the women the women that's plural then this s then that s goes away the women that run in my neighborhood but this one of course are pros we need to have subject verb agreement between these two okay so just watch out for subject verb agreement the third and biggest most common error that i see with adjective clauses is that students will add a new pronoun like who or that or which but they won't take out the one that is supposed to be replaced like this the women that they run in my neighborhood are fast now do you see the error we're using the word that or who right but look we've kept the they there okay which we don't need to do because this word is replacing that right remember we're we're combining two sentences so if we back up we're combining these two sentences we're turning this one into an adjective clause to describe the women and they refers to the women so we need to take that out replace that subject pronoun with an ob replace that subject pronoun with a relative pronoun like who or that right but we gotta take that out we can't leave it in the women and then it goes here that run in my neighborhood are fast don't leave that pronoun in same thing with objects let me show you that one so let's look at this one we want to combine them we want to talk about the pro runner him i met a pro runner i saw him on a run we're going to turn this sentence into an adjective clause to describe the pro-runner which means we're going to replace this word him with one of those adjective clause pronoun words right so you've got to remove that okay and replace it with whom or that right so and then of course you move this all the way to the front right i'm in a pro runner whom i saw on a run the mistake i see is that students will not take out the object and they say i met a pro runner whom i saw him on a run and that is not grammatically correct but people understand you completely they do um but if you want to avoid these mistakes and these these types of issues then you just need to make sure that when you're adding a new pronoun that you're taking away the old one and that's it so thank you for watching this video i hope that it was helpful and don't forget to check out the reduce adjective clause video if you want to really be proficient at using them while you're speaking

Channel: Breaking English

Views: 37,480

Keywords: Adjective Clauses, Adjective Clause Connectors Examples, adjective clause, Breaking English, Adjective Clause Connectors, grammar, Adjective clause breaking english, clauses breaking english, Why do Adjective Clauses matter, Adjective Clauses matter, adjective clauses, adjective clause in english grammar, english grammar, learn english, learn english grammar, basic english grammar, clause learning, grammar lesson, education, Object pronouns, adjective clause errors

Id: bAGHQ9D-1Jg

Length: 30min 50sec (1850 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021