Relative Clauses (and reduced relative clauses)

want to speak real english from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at englishclass101.com hi everybody my name is alicia in this lesson i'm going to talk about relative clauses i'm also going to talk about reduced relative clauses i'm going to start by introducing the main points of this grammar and then i'm going to introduce a lot of example sentences so we can see the different ways that we use this grammar point let's begin okay first i want to begin by explaining what a relative clause is so a relative clause is something like if it's like a phrase an extra phrase like a long adjective so we use relative clauses to give extra information about a noun these come after the noun that they modify so you can imagine in most cases in english adjectives come before the nouns they modify but a relative clause it's kind of like an adjective it tells us something extra about a noun but this comes after after the noun okay so when we're making relative clauses we use something called a relative pronoun and basic relative clauses begin with a relative pronoun so examples of relative pronouns are in this list here so relative pronouns are that which who whom where and when so there are different situations where we use these relative pronouns so when we use that and which we're talking about a people or i'm sorry we're talking about a person or an object so that's people or things the difference between that and which is actually related to a more advanced grammar point which i have marked here we use that in something that's called a restrictive clause you might hear this word restrictive used or there is another word that's used that's called descriptive clauses so a restrictive clause is a clause that gives us essential information about the noun i'll share some examples of this a little later we use which then for people and things as i said it tends to sound a little more formal than that and we use which in non-restrictive clauses or you might hear the expression non-descriptive clauses as well so a non-restrictive clause is a clause that gives non-essential information about a noun so that means we don't have to have that information to understand the noun or to understand the situation completely so again i'll share some examples of these a little bit later let's look at the next pair the next pair is who and whom who and whom we use who for people and some people like to use it for pets it's kind of like the pet is a member of their family so you might hear that you might hear who used to talk about pets whom then is used for people as well if it's the object of the clause this is a point um that is becoming rarer um fewer and fewer people are using whom in this way in most cases even native speakers tend to use who for all people so this is one point to keep in mind if you want to be absolutely perfectly correct you can use whom but to some people it might sound a little bit like too polite or it might sound like you're trying too hard so it's okay to use who if you're ever not sure finally the last two are where and when so we use where for places and when for time so again i'll share some examples of this in a moment for now let's take a look at the examples i'll come back to these points a bit later let's look then at this first example sentence so i've marked the relative clause in each sentence in red marker so this first example sentence introduces a basic relative clause pattern this marker which my company bought is red so in this simple sentence i'm describing this marker this marker which my company bought is red so here my relative clause is this part right here and there are a few different ways a few hints you can remember to help you identify relative clauses i've listed them here the first hint or the first tip to identify a relative clause is punctuation remember punctuation means like a period comma question mark and so on a punctuation hint relative clauses sometimes not always have these commas around the clause this is also a really good hint that the relative clause is a non-restrictive clause that means it's not essential to understand the noun so this is one tip but this is not always something that you can use sometimes there is not punctuation you can use tip number two uh is a phrase that begins with a relative pronoun so in this case the phrase does begin with the relative pronoun here it's which so i talked about the relative pronoun which as one of the relative pronouns we use to describe people and things so here we have a relative pronoun it begins this phrase third a phrase that follows a noun and gives us extra information about it in this case this expression this phrase comes after it follows a noun marker and it tells us extra information so we know that this is probably a relative clause another really great way to test is to try removing the clause and seeing if the sentence is grammatically correct so if i remove this part the sentence becomes this marker is red it's a grammatically correct sentence so this marker is red this is true so that's basic information about this noun if i want to give extra information this marker which my company bought is red i can do that with a relative clause so this is a really simple example of a non-restrictive actually relative clause in a sentence so this is non-essential information we do not need this point to understand this noun but it tells us something extra okay so let's continue on to this next pair here first let's read the sentence i want to read the first one the computer that he bought online is really fast the computer that he bought online is really fast so here of course for today's lesson the relative clause is in red but as i mentioned not all relative clauses are surrounded by punctuation marks this is one example so we tend to see this punctuation point with non-restrictive clauses we can however see point two in this one a phrase that begins with a relative pronoun so here we see that is used so this is one hint we can think about and third a phrase that follows a noun and gives us extra information about it so we see computer is our noun here and we see some extra information about the computer here so we can be sure that this is a relative clause again if we try to remove this the computer is really fast we make a grammatically correct sentence so we can be confident that this is the relative clause so why aren't there punctuation marks here this is an example of what i mentioned before a restrictive clause so a restrictive clause is something that gives us essential information about the noun so here we need this information in order to understand this noun so the computer is really fast but for some reason the speaker wants to be specific the computer that he bought online is really fast so you might think why do we need to know this information why is this essential information for this noun this comes into play that means this is something that's useful when you have a few items that you're comparing you're talking about differences so imagine you're speaking with a co-worker and you're comparing different computers in your office and you want to say something like the computer that he bought online is really fast and then you might say something like this but the computer that he bought at a secondhand shop is slow so the computer that he bought at a secondhand shop is slow this follows the same pattern here but we're comparing two different items and we want to make it specific we want to be clear which item is which so this one that he bought online so that's an essential piece of information about that computer and the other one that he bought at a second hand shop is slow so we need this information right here it's essential we have this information to understand the differences between these two nouns so this is an example of a restrictive clause therefore we use that here that and no punctuation so um if you have a restrictive clause you won't see these commas around the clause so this is a quick introduction to that i want to continue though to the next parts in the following example sentences i'm going to talk a little bit about reduced relative clauses so a reduced relative clause is a relative clause that becomes shorter it becomes smaller reduce we reduce it so to do that i want to first talk about this point down here and by reduce i mean we can remove the pronoun so which i talked about over here i'm off the screen sorry so to reduce a relative clause means we remove the pronoun and the linking verb so the linking verb is usually the verb be some form of b like is or are so when we reduce these as we'll see in just a moment the phrase becomes slightly shorter that's all it becomes easier to say shorter to say so we can reduce if number one the relative clause uses a relative pronoun and it uses the progressive form of the verb here it uses an adjective it uses the passive form or it uses a prepositional phrase so i'll share some examples of these second we can reduce if the relative pronoun functions as the object of the clause the object of the clause so a quick hint if your relative pronoun is followed by a verb it's the subject of the clause so this is a really quick way to test is it the subject or the object so if it's followed by a verb we'll see it's the subject again we'll we'll see some examples so with this in mind let's take a look at all of these example sentences first i want to say all of these sentences are correct there's no difference in meaning between a regular relative clause and a reduced relative clause they mean exactly the same thing we're just making the sentence a little bit shorter so it's up to you to choose which you prefer let's look at an example first the guy who is talking to the teacher is my roommate so here's my relative clause who is talking to the teacher the guy who is talking to the teacher is my roommate so here we have the relative pronoun who which we use for people who is we see there's this linking verb the be verb and i have the verb in progressive tense talking here so this is one case where i can make a reduced relative clause because the relative clause uses a relative pronoun plus the progressive form of a verb which we see here so to reduce we simply remove who is reduce with relative pronoun and with your linking verb in this case so the sentence becomes the guy talking to the teacher is my roommate it's still grammatically correct we've just removed part of the sentence let's look at another example this is the book that you recommended this is the book that you recommended so here my relative pronoun is that and i've followed it with you recommended so this is an example where there's no linking verb here actually so this is the book that is something that actually native speakers will drop here this is the book you recommended we can also make this sentence so um in some cases i've seen some questions some viewer questions where uses of that like this people ask should i use it shouldn't i use it um the kind of generally accepted guideline is that if you can remove that it's good to do it's not incorrect to include that in a situation like this but just for clarity uh it's often a good idea to remove it when possible so this is the book that you recommended is perfectly fine this is the book you recommended is also perfectly fine so it's up to you to choose okay um and for a grammar point here we see that the relative pronoun is not followed by a verb here so this is one sort of example where you might choose to drop or not drop actually i personally would choose to drop here okay let's move along then to the next one which of these drinks that are on the table is yours so here my relative clauses that are on the table that are on the table here i have my relative pronoun i have my linking verb r in this case then i have a prepositional phrase that are on the table so i mentioned prepositional phrases can be reduced we can make a reduced relative clause if we're using a prepositional phrase that means which of these drinks on the table is yours so again we can remove the relative pronoun and the linking verb there okay another example did everyone who took the class trip get sick did everyone who took the class trip get sick so here there's a big hint we see our relative pronoun yes but the relative pronoun is followed by a verb here it's took past tense of take so that means we actually cannot reduce this one we cannot make a change to this one did everyone took the class trip get sick that's not correct we cannot do that so this sentence there is no change here let's look at the next one this is the place where we first met this is the place where we first met so here my relative pronoun is where i mentioned where is used for places here there's no verb that follows it so this is one case again like we saw up here there's no linking verb here either but because it's functioning as the object we can remove it this is the place we first met this is the place we first met so it's okay to remove that there okay one more example do you remember the time when we went on a family trip to europe so here i'm using when because it's a time question and again we don't have a verb here there's nothing here again we have this we so we can remove this part if we like do you remember the time we went on a family trip to europe it's also okay so there are these examples like this one this one and this one where there's no linking verb but because the relative pronoun functions as the object of the clause it's okay to remove it so in these cases um it's quite natural to include it but in cases like that because that is such a common word it's kind of a guideline i suppose to try to remove it where possible okay so that was a lot of information i know but this is a pretty good i hope introduction to relative clauses how to make them and some different patterns that you can use especially when you're reducing them so i hope that this was helpful for you if you have any questions or comments or if you want to practice making an example sentence with a relative clause please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video of course if you like the video please don't forget to give it a thumbs up subscribe to our channel if you have not already and check us out at englishclass101.com for some other things that can help you with your english studies thanks very much for watching this lesson and i will see you again soon bye want to speed up your language learning take your very first lesson with us you'll start speaking in minutes and master real conversations sign up for your free lifetime account just click the link in the description

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Length: 17min 43sec (1063 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 11 2021