WHAT or THAT Relative Pronouns Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them

maybe first question comes from I am hi

ion ion says hi Alicia which sentence is

correct

I think someone break into my apartment

or I think someone broke into my family

when should I use the simple past tense

actually both sentences are close but

neither sentence is correct the correct

sentence would be I think someone broke

into my apartment so when we use the

verb break into and the regular present

tense we follow it with the actual place

like with the location so we don’t use

people as the object of this phrasal

verb we use the actual place so I broke

into an apartment or someone broke into

my house or I think someone is breaking

into your car or a thief broke into the

jewelry store last night

okay so I hope that this helps with your

understanding of the phrase break into

thanks very much for the question

alright let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from

Vladimir hi Vlad Amir Vladimir says hi

what is the difference between what as a

conjunction and that some examples I

should have said what I said I don’t

know that we can show me that you can

help me and I’ll tell you where your

friends are I got these examples from TV

shows yeah a really good question and a

tough question too actually in these

sentences what and that are not acting

as conjunctions they’re acting as

relative pronouns so relative pronouns

start a noun clause like a relative

clause they’re giving us some

information and we begin these clauses

with relative pronouns so let’s take a

look at the examples that use in let’s

start with what so in your first example

sentence you said I should have said

what I said

so here what marks the

beginning of this new clause what I said

is the clause itself so I should have

said something

so this what I said refers to something

the speaker mentioned earlier something

the speaker like mentioned in a

different conversation so what I said

could be replaced with it or that and

the sentence would remain grammatical

like I should have said it I should have

said that what is acting as a relative

pronoun and it means the thing which or

the things which something something

something so you could say I should have

said the things which I said so that

would be a grammatically correct

sentence so in this case what does not

act as a conjunction it’s acting as a

relative pronoun it’s starting off this

clause this new information so let’s

look at another example that uses this

for example I shouldn’t have eaten what

I ate for lunch so in this sentence what

I ate for lunch is like my extra

information that’s my noun clause there

and I’m using what to introduce that so

here the speaker is expressing regret

maybe the speaker ate lots of junk food

for lunch and now they feel terrible so

I shouldn’t have eaten what I ate for

lunch so that means that thing or those

things that I ate for lunch even though

the speaker is not specifically stating

everything he or she ate so we use what

in this way to mean the things which or

the thing which so let’s continue on to

your other two examples the first one

was I don’t know that we can so here

that is the relative pronoun as we

talked about with what but here that is

used to introduce like an idea or a

concept so that we can is the noun

clause here it’s acting as the object of

the verb no I don’t know that we can so

that we can is referring to something

that was said earlier in the

conversation so maybe for example like

we should try to convince the neighbors

to build a pool and share

with us and then the speaker might

respond with hmm I don’t know that we

can so that we can like that seems like

it’s kind of an unfinished sentence like

what does can connect to there but can

actually connects to the verb that was

in the previous statement or the

previous sentence in that case it was we

should convince the neighbors so that we

can connects to the verb convinced like

I don’t know that we can convince the

neighbors that’s what it means so in

order to introduce this clause we use

that so we use that for like things

ideas concepts it sounds quite informal

to for more information on using that

you can check out a video that we have

on the channel about relative clauses as

well let’s look at your last example so

in this example you said show me that

you can help me so here let’s focus on

this clause that’s that you can help me

so in this case it’s actually not acting

as the object the direct object so the

verb here is show the direct object is

me and this clause is actually what’s

called the object compliment so an

object compliment describes or gives us

some more information about the direct

object so in this case it’s show me like

what are you going to show me that you

can help me so there’s this noun clause

there and we begin the noun clause with

that so this is the difference and this

is how we use these kinds of things in

sentences so I hope that this answers

your question thanks very much for

sending it along ok let’s move on to

your next question next question comes

from Mohammed Bushra hi Mohammed

Mohammed says how do I use in terms of

in sentences ok using in terms of kind

of like helps you to explain a specific

focus for a situation or gives you more

context about a situation so for example

I’d like a company meeting you could say

in terms of sales last month was a huge

success

but in terms of staff morale it was a

huge failure so here you’re pointing out

like two parts of one situation so

you’re talking about the

company’s performance maybe last month

as a whole as one thing but inside that

there are small points so you’re

pointing out smaller things inside

something larger so we use in terms of

to do that I would say we tend to use

this a little bit more informal

conversations I wouldn’t use this a lot

with friends but you could if you want

to so I hope that that helps you thanks

very much for the question all right

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from is son hiya son

Hasan says hi Alicia could you please

explain a bit about past and past and

how to use them in different situations

because it’s quite challenging for

learners I watched a few videos but I’m

still a bit confused Thanks

okay sure let’s talk about past pasd

first so past can be a noun which refers

to time before the present we can also

use past to refer to prior things so

that means it’s like an adjective so my

past work or like my past relationships

or my past job so past refers to things

prior

in the past what kind of work have you

enjoyed doing some of her past

relationships ended terribly now let’s

talk about past so pas sed this is the

past tense form of the verb to pass

which can mean like to move beyond

something else or it can mean to give

someone something else usually like a

close range we also use this verb to

mean to successfully complete a test or

to get a good grade on a test to pass so

again this is the past tense and the

past participle form of this verb so

that means that even though the

pronunciations sound very similar these

two words have very different

grammatical functions and therefore you

can determine which word is being used

depending on the positioning of the word

in the sentence so let’s look at some

examples with past I passed my coworker

on the street earlier have you ever

passed a test without studying there’s

one more use of pass that’s also very

common which is to pass out to pass out

means to fall asleep and we usually use

this when like we’ve been drinking or

when we’re just super super tired so for

example I passed out as soon as I got

home last night

or he passed out in the back of the car

so pass out is kind of a set phrase on

its own which like casually or roughly

means to fall asleep so you can hear in

these example sentences that past pas

sed and past pas T take different

positions in sentences so we’re not just

listening for the pronunciations of

these words in speech we’re also kind of

listening to the grammar of the sentence

as a whole so if you’re confused if

you’re listening to someone speaking and

you’re wondering that that person just

say passed or did they say passed which

sounds extremely similar think about the

way the sentence is made like what’s the

position of the word that you’re

wondering about and also think like does

this word make sense the meaning of this

word so in some these words do take

different positions and have different

meanings so try to listen to the

sentence as a whole I hope that this

helps you thanks very much for the

question okay let’s move on to your next

next question comes from Bernard Oh

Valencia Gonzales heigen Fernando

Fernando says hi Alicia my questions I

still can’t get the difference between

buy and purchase in the same way I don’t

know when or where to use amid among and

between cool so first let’s take a look

at buy and purchase yeah when we use

these as verbs they share a meaning

really but in everyday conversation we

use buy like I need to buy a camera or

I’m gonna go buy lunch or what did you

buy last weekend so they refer to just

like going shopping and exchanging money

for things we use purchase more in like

formal situations maybe in like

contracts or maybe you see it in like a

customer service agreement you might

also see purchase as like the verb use

on an online shopping website like the

button to click something might say buy

or it might say purchase so it’s just

the verb that’s used you might also see

purchase used as a noun we can use it as

a countable noun actually so like

customers should bring their purchases

to the register it does sound more

formal we cannot use buy in this way we

cannot use buy as a noun that would

sound very strange so please only use

purchase as a noun so in everyday

conversation I would recommend using the

verb buy to talk about shopping in more

formal situations we might use purchase

more commonly regarding your second

question about the differences between

amid and among and between the very

short answer is that a mid is used with

uncountable nouns among is used with

countable nouns and between is used in

situations where there are just two

options to choose from we also use

between to mean in the middle of two

objects

another point a mid does tend to sound

quite formal and we tend to use a mid

with these kind of like abstract nouns

so for example she lost her wallet amid

the confusion or the thief escaped amid

the excitement of the concert regarding

among then when we use it with countable

nouns it kind of sounds a little bit

less formal than and

like they walked among the trees or

there’s a spy among us so between can be

used to mean in the middle of two things

so for example on the train this morning

I sat between two people wearing lots of

perfume or I put your lunch over there

between the microwave and the coffee

maker so this is a really quick

introduction to these I made a

whiteboard video about this question so

please keep an eye out for that on the

channel very soon so I hope that that

helps answer your question thank you

very much for sending this alone all

right

that’s everything that I have for this

week thanks as always for sending your

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me at English class 101.com / ask -

alicia

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