Relative Clauses and reduced relative clauses

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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

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

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

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

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much for watching this lesson and i will

see you again

soon bye

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