There are three things that you should never do in life: one don't tell your girlfriend about your
other girlfriend, two don't ask your people if they want to leave the biggest trading bloc in
the world and three, don't confuse your relative pronouns. Yes that's right relative pronouns
is what we're going to talk about today we're going to look at when to use that or WHICH
or WHO or WHOM or WHOSE when or where when you can omit the relative pronoun
and when you can't and how to pronounce relative clauses correctly.
Sounds complicated but, in fact, with this brain and with this doughnut I'm going to explain it
in a way that's super easy. That's right easy peasy relative pronoun so let's do it
Hello and welcome to LetThemTalkTV let's begin with a definition. What is a relative pronoun?
It's a word that connects two clauses. What is a clause? It's a phrase that has a subject and
a verb. For example, “I saw a panda bear.” That's a clause. It's also a sentence. It has a subject,
an object and a verb. Let's look at another phrase “the panda bear was smoking a cigar”
but what if we wanted to put them together into one sentence. “I saw a panda bear WHO” or “THAT
was smoking a cigar” so the relative pronoun WHO or THAT in this case links the two clauses
the relative pronoun normally comes after the noun they are called relative clauses
but they can also be called adjectival clauses because it's a series of words that describes an
action in this video. However, I'll be calling them relative clauses. Now there are two types
of relative clauses and these will help us decide which relative pronoun if any we use.
The two types of relative clauses are; restrictive relative clauses and non-restrictive relative
clauses. I will explain this in a moment but first have a look at this super easy graph. Now this
graph is just looking at THAT or WHICH. However, in this video we will also look at WHO and its
related forms WHOM and WHOSE as well as WHEN and WHERE. For non-restrictive relative clauses
you can use WHICH but never THAT in restrictive relative clauses you would usually use THAT but
other forms are possible. I'll explain that later. Only in restrictive relative clauses
can you sometimes omit the relative pronoun. What is a non-restrictive relative clause? So
you say something and you give an extra bit of information that is not crucial. For example
“these doughnuts are delicious” that's my message but what if I wanted to add a little
color to my description? “These doughnuts, which are going to make me fat, are delicious.”
I've added some extra information which doesn't change the basic message that these doughnuts
are delicious. I put the extra information with commas which I'll indicate by doing
this. Yes this means that there is a comma at the beginning and then and at the end of the clause
okay and in these clauses you always use WHICH and not THAT. Notice the pronunciation change
when you give the extra information. There is a slight pause and the voice changes tone
usually downwards. Listen again. “These doughnuts, which are going to make me fat,
are delicious.” A couple more examples; “this gold coin,
which I found on the beach, is 500 years old.” So my main message here is that the coin is 500
years old wow isn't that amazing but what if my main message was that I found it on the beach
then just switch it around. “This gold coin, which is 500 years old, I found on the beach.”
“The letter, which you sent me last week,
has still not arrived.” If the extra information is about a person you can use WHO
or WHOM or WHOSE WHO is a subject pronoun WHOM is an object pronoun but in reality WHO is usually
used for both. I'll show you what I mean. “Jane, who was here yesterday, ate all the doughnuts.”
There WHO refers to the subject “Jane, to whom I gave all the doughnuts,
is an accountant” After a preposition you put WHOM never WHO. However, most of the time you'll
move the preposition to the end of the clause and use WHO “Jane, who I gave all the doughnuts to,
is an accountant” WHOM is quite formal and rarely used though that you still hear it sometimes.
Mr Falco, whom I did not invite to sit at this table tonight, is a hungry press agent
and fully up to all the tricks of his very slimy trade. match me Sidney
not right this minute JJ. And there is one case where we still use WHOM
in everyday conversation. For more information on that check out this video. You can never omit
the relative pronoun from a non-restrictive relative clause. Finally you can also use
WHOSE which is a possessive before the noun “Jane, whose house is just up the road, loves doughnuts.”
Let's move on to restrictive relative clauses an example; “bring me the doughnut
that is next to the cheese.” If I just say to you “bring me the doughnut” you'll be rummaging
around the house for the correct doughnut. I have many and you won't know which one I want so next
the cheese is crucial information. It cannot be omitted and in this case you will usually use
THAT but there are exceptions and I'll talk about that in a moment. With restrictive relative
clauses you don't use commas so for example “Let's take the train that leaves at 9 30”.
There are many trains leaving that day so 9 30 is crucial information wouldn't you agree?
“The trousers that I bought yesterday are too small.” I have many pairs of trousers. We need to
know which one I bought yesterday. “that I bought yesterday” is crucial information. Can you use
WHICH instead of THAT? Generally yes, here's where it gets a little bit complicated. Some
English language style guides say that you should use THAT not WHICH in restrictive relative clauses
but other style guides say both are correct. What is explained here are grammatical guidelines
which are open to debate. They are not grammatical rules; you will find many examples from great
works of literature where, for example, you use WHICH in a restrictive relative clause.
Personally I prefer THAT rather than WHICH in restrictive clauses I feel the sentence usually
sounds better for example “I read an interesting book that's about dolphins.” okay “I read an
interesting book which is about dolphins.” For me THAT sounds better. It's clearer.
You know it's crucial information if you use WHICH in this sentence it could be a non-restrictive
relative clause or a restrictive relative course so I prefer THAT but that's just me. What do you
think? Answers in the comments so perhaps if you're taking an exam or writing formally you
might want to follow this guideline or you might not. Sometimes though a speaker might
choose to go against the guidelines anyway. For example in this sentence “I want the doughnut
that that man is eating.” okay you've got two THAT's next to each other it doesn't sound so
great. By the way, did you know that these two THAT's can be pronounced differently.
The relative pronoun THAT has a weak form THAT okay THAT with a schwa
for example. “This is the book that I told you about”, “this is the book that I told you about.”
THAT as a demonstrative pronoun (determiner) is always pronounced THAT “I want that
doughnut” and we say “I want the doughnut which that man is eating.” to avoid having two
THATs next to each other. By the way, while preparing this video I wrote this sentence
on a google doc and the grammar checker told me no it's wrong. It tells me that I should say
“I want the doughnut that that man is eating.” so I'm telling you that just to let you know that the
grammar checker can also be wrong or google can be wrong or whatever in the end you decide. As
I said these are guidelines not rules. Here is a rule though. In restrictive relative clauses
you can use THAT, WHO or WHOM to talk about people THAT is more informal as we said WHOM is
not often used “this is the man WHO” or “THAT” informally “robbed the bank.” “I met a girl
who lived on a farm.” “He is a writer whose books are read by millions.” After a preposition
you cannot use THAT as a relative pronoun you can only use WHICH or WHOM. Let's look at an example;
“let's go to the cafe in which we met last time”.... you cannot say IN THAT so you put in
WHICH but it sounds rather formal. We are talking about place so we can replace IN WHICH with where
which by the way is called a relative adverb you can use where after a noun let's go to the cafe
where we met okay fine, perfect. However, there is another way. If we really want to use THAT
we need to move the preposition after the verb “let's go to the cafe
that we met in last week” Okay, also perfect. You can use all three but IN WHICH is less common
what about this? “Do you remember the day on which we first met?” Again, sounds formal ON WHICH day
can be replaced by WHEN. “Do you remember when we first met?” THAT is also possible here too
by putting the preposition at the end THAT doesn't sound so natural though so let's skip
that for the moment. A word about pronunciation, restrictive relative clauses and non-restrictive
relative clauses may be pronounced in a different way. Remember what I said about non-restrictive
relative clauses: you put them between commas and you take a pause and the voice goes down.
In restrictive relative clauses the phrase is said in a single flat tone without a pause.
For example, “my sister, who lives in Muswell Hill, got married last week.” non-restrictive
“ my sister who lives in Muswell Hill got married last week”
restrictive. In the first sentence you've only got one sister so it must be a non-restrictive
relative clause and you're just giving some extra information in the second sentence you've
got more than one sister so it's a restrictive relative clause so can you hear the difference in
the pronunciation I say it once more my sister, who lives in Muswell Hill, got married last week,”
“My sister who lives in Muswell Hill got married last week.” Omitting the relative pronoun. As
we saw in the graph that we looked at, you can only omit the relative pronoun in a restrictive
relative clause but when? Actually, it's pretty easy to see how. In fact, before I tell you,
see if you can discover the rule yourself from these three examples. So where can you omit the
relative pronoun okay so three examples where you can and three examples where you can't.
here you can omit them: “This is the typewriter that I wrote my first novel on.”
“it's the most delicious doughnut that the world has ever seen.” “She's the girl
who I went to dinner with.” Here are three sentences where you can't omit the relative
pronoun “This is the book that was made into a movie.” “I met a girl who speaks 12 languages.”
“This was the evidence with which the criminal was convicted.” Did you get it? I'm sure you did,
you're brilliant. So the rule is, if the word directly after the relative pronoun
THAT, WHICH WHO or WHERE is a pronoun or a noun you can omit it
if the word directly after the relative pronoun is a verb or [it precedes] a preposition you can't
omit it. Yes it's that simple. If you want to express it another way,
if the relative pronoun is not the subject of the relative clause you can omit it,
that's fine. However, I do think for most people, including myself, it's easy if you just look at
the word after the relative pronoun and if it's a verb or [it precedes] a preposition you need
it but if it's a pronoun or noun you can rub it out and by the way omitting the relative pronoun
in this way is perfectly correct both in formal and informal English. Back to prepositions, if
the relative pronoun is preceded by a preposition you cannot omit it. However, this can only be with
WHICH or WHOM. THAT or WHO cannot be used after a preposition. Let's look at an example: “The chair
on which I'm sitting is broken.” you cannot omit WHICH because it is preceded by a preposition
“The table on which I'm sitting it's broken”. However, as we saw earlier,
ON WHICH can be changed to WHERE “the chair where I'm sitting” okay if you want to have
the same phrase but without the relative pronoun you can still do it how do you think?
put the preposition at the end of the clause then you can omit the relative pronoun
WHICH would be in this case “The chair I'm sitting on” or “the chair that I'm sitting on.”
okay it works in a similar way with WHOM and WHO “the girl from whom
I got this doughnut” okay WHOM cannot be omitted it's after preposition FROM WHOM so how can I
rewrite the sentence and omit the relative pronoun what do you think? Pause the video if necessary
Yes you're brilliant, put the preposition at the end and change WHOM to WHO
”The girl who I got this doughnut from.” but now we can omit the relative pronoun because it comes
before the pronoun “The girl I got this doughnut from.” Can I say “the girl from who I got this
doughnut”? No you can't never put WHO after a preposition you must put it at the end. Can I say
the girl whom I got this doughnut from.”? Grammatically, yes but stylistically, no,
if you insist on using WHOM then keep it next to the preposition otherwise you get what's called a
dangling preposition which is perfectly fine in English most of the time and even preferred but
not after WHOM. No don't dangle your prepositions after WHOM I'm warning you. Thank you grammarians
I'm off to eat doughnuts now and I suggest you do likewise see you in the next video