That & Which

hey guys this is Alex thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on that and which now that in which we use often in relative clauses so if you look at earlier on the website we have a lesson on relative clauses that gives a general overview this lesson will give you a little bit more detail on how to use that in which when you're writing relative clauses so just as a bit of a review on the board I have four sentences and we're going to give you a little bit more detail in this lesson about when to use that and when to use which and is there a difference between the two so for example the first sentence that I have here is the movie that we saw last weekend was really good now the relative clause here is that we saw last weekend again a relative clause is an adjective clause so what it does is it gives more information about a subject so the subject in this sentence is the movie okay so with the movie being the subject we're giving more information okay which movie the movie that we saw last weekend and we're saying that it was really good so this is an identifying clause we call this an identifying clause because it specifically identifies the subject so we cannot just say the movie was really good which movie if you need extra information or essential information that will add to the meaning of the sentence this is called an identifying clause because we are identifying which movie we're talking about okay so the movie that we saw last weekend was really good same thing with the second sentence so the second sentence the table which I bought from Ikea was cheap first of all identify the subject what is the subject in this sentence all right the table now what is the relative clause here what is the adjective clause well what about the table give me more information about the table here the table which I bought from Ikea was cheap so maybe you bought multiple tables and you want to specify that well the one that I got from Ikea was cheap okay so these are both examples of identifying clauses now as you can see we use that and which for both of them so when you create a relative clause or an adjective clause the same thing different names you can use that and which to give more information about things so they can begin a clause which has again this is a subordinating conjunction plus a subject verb object structure and you will get an identifying Clause because you're giving more information that's essential to the understanding of the sentence in these next two sentences and what you'll notice first of all is that we're not using that okay so first we have a comma here and we have a comma here next sentence we have a comma here and we have a comma here so if you watch the previous lesson you will know that these two sentences for example Harry Potter which I finished last week was an excellent book and Toronto which is heavily populated is a multicultural City these are non identifying clauses so let's write that on the board and now let's underline the non-identifying clauses and we're going to talk about why these are non-identifying clauses okay so imagine this sentence here Harry Potter which I finished last week was an excellent book do you lose any meaning if you keep the sentence Harry Potter was an excellent book not really so what this does what a non-identifying clause is is something that gives you more information extra information about a subject so your subject here is Harry Potter your subject here Toronto which is heavily populated is a multicultural city you have a subject and you don't really lose any meaning if you take out the non-identifying clause so Harry Potter was an excellent book you still understand my meaning exactly Toronto is a multicultural city you understand my meaning what I'm doing here in the non-identifying clause is giving extra information non-essential not necessary information but it is information that can give you a little bit of a richer meaning to a sentence okay now the key thing with when you're using that and which is first of all we use them to give more information about things okay so computers movies tables desks books anything you can think of now where they differ you can use both first of all when you're doing an identifying clause that and which so for example I could also say the movie which we saw last weekend was really good I can also say the table that I bought from Ikea was cheap but here if you're doing a non-identifying clause if you're writing one you can only use which inside the non-identifying clause you cannot say Harry Potter that I finished last week was an excellent you cannot say Toronto comma that is heavily populated comma is a multicultural City you must use which ok so if you'd like to test your understanding of that which identifying and non-identifying clauses and test out your writing skills check out the quiz under this video on engvid calm good luck guys and take care

Channel: English with Alex · engVid English Classes

Views: 454,919

Keywords: that, which, punctuation, comma, commas, relative clauses, english, grammar, english-grammar, english-lesson, lessons, learn-english, engvid, rebeccaesl, jenniferesl, toefl, toefl-ibt, toeic, ielts, anglais, inglese, inglés, Englisch, англи́йский, inglês, angielski, engleză, anglicky, αγγλικά, İngilizce, إنجليزي, Inggris, Angol

Id: zlohF_NTnXc

Length: 7min 15sec (435 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 06 2011