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
so
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
so
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
so
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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