There are three things that you should never do
in life: one don't tell your girlfriend about your other girlfriend, two don't ask your people if
they want to leave the biggest trading bloc in the world and three, don't confuse your relative
pronouns. Yes that's right relative pronouns is what we're going to talk about today we're
going to look at when to use that or WHICH or WHO or WHOM or WHOSE when or where
when you can omit the relative pronoun and when you can't and how to
pronounce relative clauses correctly. Sounds complicated but, in fact, with this brain
and with this doughnut I'm going to explain it in a way that's super easy. That's right
easy peasy relative pronoun so let's do it Hello and welcome to LetThemTalkTV let's begin
with a definition. What is a relative pronoun? It's a word that connects two clauses. What is
a clause? It's a phrase that has a subject and a verb. For example, “I saw a panda bear.” That's
a clause. It's also a sentence. It has a subject, an object and a verb. Let's look at another
phrase “the panda bear was smoking a cigar” but what if we wanted to put them together into
one sentence. “I saw a panda bear WHO” or “THAT was smoking a cigar” so the relative pronoun
WHO or THAT in this case links the two clauses the relative pronoun normally comes after
the noun they are called relative clauses but they can also be called adjectival clauses
because it's a series of words that describes an action in this video. However, I'll be calling
them relative clauses. Now there are two types of relative clauses and these will help us
decide which relative pronoun if any we use. The two types of relative clauses are; restrictive
relative clauses and non-restrictive relative clauses. I will explain this in a moment but first
have a look at this super easy graph. Now this graph is just looking at THAT or WHICH. However,
in this video we will also look at WHO and its related forms WHOM and WHOSE as well as WHEN
and WHERE. For non-restrictive relative clauses you can use WHICH but never THAT in restrictive
relative clauses you would usually use THAT but other forms are possible. I'll explain that
later. Only in restrictive relative clauses can you sometimes omit the relative pronoun.
What is a non-restrictive relative clause? So you say something and you give an extra bit of
information that is not crucial. For example “these doughnuts are delicious” that's my
message but what if I wanted to add a little color to my description? “These doughnuts,
which are going to make me fat, are delicious.” I've added some extra information which doesn't
change the basic message that these doughnuts are delicious. I put the extra information
with commas which I'll indicate by doing this. Yes this means that there is a comma at the
beginning and then and at the end of the clause okay and in these clauses you always use WHICH
and not THAT. Notice the pronunciation change when you give the extra information. There
is a slight pause and the voice changes tone usually downwards. Listen again. “These
doughnuts, which are going to make me fat, are delicious.” A couple more
examples; “this gold coin, which I found on the beach, is 500 years old.”
So my main message here is that the coin is 500 years old wow isn't that amazing but what if my
main message was that I found it on the beach then just switch it around. “This gold coin,
which is 500 years old, I found on the beach.” “The letter, which you sent me last week, has still not arrived.” If the extra
information is about a person you can use WHO or WHOM or WHOSE WHO is a subject pronoun WHOM is
an object pronoun but in reality WHO is usually used for both. I'll show you what I mean. “Jane,
who was here yesterday, ate all the doughnuts.” There WHO refers to the subject “Jane,
to whom I gave all the doughnuts, is an accountant” After a preposition you put
WHOM never WHO. However, most of the time you'll move the preposition to the end of the clause and
use WHO “Jane, who I gave all the doughnuts to, is an accountant” WHOM is quite formal and rarely
used though that you still hear it sometimes. Mr Falco, whom I did not invite to sit at
this table tonight, is a hungry press agent and fully up to all the tricks of
his very slimy trade. match me Sidney not right this minute JJ.
And there is one case where we still use WHOM in everyday conversation. For more information
on that check out this video. You can never omit the relative pronoun from a non-restrictive
relative clause. Finally you can also use WHOSE which is a possessive before the noun “Jane,
whose house is just up the road, loves doughnuts.” Let's move on to restrictive relative
clauses an example; “bring me the doughnut that is next to the cheese.” If I just say to
you “bring me the doughnut” you'll be rummaging around the house for the correct doughnut. I have
many and you won't know which one I want so next the cheese is crucial information. It cannot be
omitted and in this case you will usually use THAT but there are exceptions and I'll talk
about that in a moment. With restrictive relative clauses you don't use commas so for example
“Let's take the train that leaves at 9 30”. There are many trains leaving that day so 9
30 is crucial information wouldn't you agree? “The trousers that I bought yesterday are too
small.” I have many pairs of trousers. We need to know which one I bought yesterday. “that I bought
yesterday” is crucial information. Can you use WHICH instead of THAT? Generally yes, here's
where it gets a little bit complicated. Some English language style guides say that you should
use THAT not WHICH in restrictive relative clauses but other style guides say both are correct.
What is explained here are grammatical guidelines which are open to debate. They are not grammatical
rules; you will find many examples from great works of literature where, for example, you
use WHICH in a restrictive relative clause. Personally I prefer THAT rather than WHICH in
restrictive clauses I feel the sentence usually sounds better for example “I read an interesting
book that's about dolphins.” okay “I read an interesting book which is about dolphins.”
For me THAT sounds better. It's clearer. You know it's crucial information if you use WHICH
in this sentence it could be a non-restrictive relative clause or a restrictive relative course
so I prefer THAT but that's just me. What do you think? Answers in the comments so perhaps if
you're taking an exam or writing formally you might want to follow this guideline or you
might not. Sometimes though a speaker might choose to go against the guidelines anyway. For
example in this sentence “I want the doughnut that that man is eating.” okay you've got two
THAT's next to each other it doesn't sound so great. By the way, did you know that these
two THAT's can be pronounced differently. The relative pronoun THAT has a weak
form THAT okay THAT with a schwa for example. “This is the book that I told you
about”, “this is the book that I told you about.” THAT as a demonstrative pronoun (determiner)
is always pronounced THAT “I want that doughnut” and we say “I want the doughnut
which that man is eating.” to avoid having two THATs next to each other. By the way, while
preparing this video I wrote this sentence on a google doc and the grammar checker told
me no it's wrong. It tells me that I should say “I want the doughnut that that man is eating.” so
I'm telling you that just to let you know that the grammar checker can also be wrong or google can
be wrong or whatever in the end you decide. As I said these are guidelines not rules. Here is
a rule though. In restrictive relative clauses you can use THAT, WHO or WHOM to talk about
people THAT is more informal as we said WHOM is not often used “this is the man WHO” or “THAT”
informally “robbed the bank.” “I met a girl who lived on a farm.” “He is a writer whose
books are read by millions.” After a preposition you cannot use THAT as a relative pronoun you can
only use WHICH or WHOM. Let's look at an example; “let's go to the cafe in which we met last
time”.... you cannot say IN THAT so you put in WHICH but it sounds rather formal. We are talking
about place so we can replace IN WHICH with where which by the way is called a relative adverb you
can use where after a noun let's go to the cafe where we met okay fine, perfect. However, there
is another way. If we really want to use THAT we need to move the preposition
after the verb “let's go to the cafe that we met in last week” Okay, also perfect.
You can use all three but IN WHICH is less common what about this? “Do you remember the day on which
we first met?” Again, sounds formal ON WHICH day can be replaced by WHEN. “Do you remember when
we first met?” THAT is also possible here too by putting the preposition at the end THAT
doesn't sound so natural though so let's skip that for the moment. A word about pronunciation,
restrictive relative clauses and non-restrictive relative clauses may be pronounced in a different
way. Remember what I said about non-restrictive relative clauses: you put them between commas
and you take a pause and the voice goes down. In restrictive relative clauses the phrase is
said in a single flat tone without a pause. For example, “my sister, who lives in Muswell
Hill, got married last week.” non-restrictive “ my sister who lives in Muswell
Hill got married last week” restrictive. In the first sentence you've only
got one sister so it must be a non-restrictive relative clause and you're just giving some
extra information in the second sentence you've got more than one sister so it's a restrictive
relative clause so can you hear the difference in the pronunciation I say it once more my sister,
who lives in Muswell Hill, got married last week,” “My sister who lives in Muswell Hill got married
last week.” Omitting the relative pronoun. As we saw in the graph that we looked at, you can
only omit the relative pronoun in a restrictive relative clause but when? Actually, it's pretty
easy to see how. In fact, before I tell you, see if you can discover the rule yourself from
these three examples. So where can you omit the relative pronoun okay so three examples where
you can and three examples where you can't. here you can omit them: “This is the
typewriter that I wrote my first novel on.” “it's the most delicious doughnut that
the world has ever seen.” “She's the girl who I went to dinner with.” Here are three
sentences where you can't omit the relative pronoun “This is the book that was made into a
movie.” “I met a girl who speaks 12 languages.” “This was the evidence with which the criminal
was convicted.” Did you get it? I'm sure you did, you're brilliant. So the rule is, if the
word directly after the relative pronoun THAT, WHICH WHO or WHERE is a
pronoun or a noun you can omit it if the word directly after the relative pronoun
is a verb or [it precedes] a preposition you can't omit it. Yes it's that simple. If
you want to express it another way, if the relative pronoun is not the subject
of the relative clause you can omit it, that's fine. However, I do think for most people,
including myself, it's easy if you just look at the word after the relative pronoun and if it's
a verb or [it precedes] a preposition you need it but if it's a pronoun or noun you can rub it
out and by the way omitting the relative pronoun in this way is perfectly correct both in formal
and informal English. Back to prepositions, if the relative pronoun is preceded by a preposition
you cannot omit it. However, this can only be with WHICH or WHOM. THAT or WHO cannot be used after a
preposition. Let's look at an example: “The chair on which I'm sitting is broken.” you cannot omit
WHICH because it is preceded by a preposition “The table on which I'm sitting it's
broken”. However, as we saw earlier, ON WHICH can be changed to WHERE “the chair
where I'm sitting” okay if you want to have the same phrase but without the relative
pronoun you can still do it how do you think? put the preposition at the end of the clause
then you can omit the relative pronoun WHICH would be in this case “The chair I'm
sitting on” or “the chair that I'm sitting on.” okay it works in a similar way with
WHOM and WHO “the girl from whom I got this doughnut” okay WHOM cannot be omitted
it's after preposition FROM WHOM so how can I rewrite the sentence and omit the relative pronoun
what do you think? Pause the video if necessary Yes you're brilliant, put the preposition
at the end and change WHOM to WHO ”The girl who I got this doughnut from.” but now
we can omit the relative pronoun because it comes before the pronoun “The girl I got this doughnut
from.” Can I say “the girl from who I got this doughnut”? No you can't never put WHO after a
preposition you must put it at the end. Can I say the girl whom I got this doughnut from.”?
Grammatically, yes but stylistically, no, if you insist on using WHOM then keep it next to
the preposition otherwise you get what's called a dangling preposition which is perfectly fine in
English most of the time and even preferred but not after WHOM. No don't dangle your prepositions
after WHOM I'm warning you. Thank you grammarians I'm off to eat doughnuts now and I suggest
you do likewise see you in the next video
