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
questions remember you can send them to
me at English class 101.com / ask -
alicia
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