Speaker 1: This podcast, which I produce for you each week, is
designed to help you improve your English. I'm sure that
English learners who listen to the Happy English Podcast can
find something useful in each episode. Did you notice those
relative clauses let's discuss.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael all.
Speaker 1: Rye, Thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael here
from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast Episode seven seventy three.
Relative clauses. So today I thought I would take a
look into relative clauses and just kind of go through
everything that you might need to know about them. We're
going to start out simple and then build to great excitement.
First of all, like, what are relative clauses? In a nutshell,
relative clauses are kind of like these little phrases that
we add into our sentences to give us extra information
about a noun, so like bonus information about a noun.
And they're really useful for like adding detail and making
your sentences more interesting. And there are two different types
of relative clauses. Let's start with a situation. Imagine you're
talking to a friend about someone you met on your
last trip to New York. And then you say, I
met a woman who does make amazing magic tricks. Listen
to that again, I met a woman who does amazing
magic tricks. Did you catch the second part of that sentence?
I said I met a woman, and then I said,
who does amazing magic tricks? That second part, who does
amazing magic tricks. That's a relative clause. This relative clause
gives us more information about the woman. In particular, This
kind of relative clause is called a defining relative clause
because it defines the noun that comes before it. It
describes that noun I met a woman who does amazing
magic tricks. Now we have details about the woman I met.
Here's another one. The man who lives next door to
me has a very very loud voice. It's true, actually,
And now you know about him. The man who lives
next door has a very loud voice. Now you know
about the woman I met and the man who lives
next door. And by the way, the book which you
lent me is fantastic. What book the book which you
lent me? What man? The man who lives next door?
What woman? A woman who does amazing magic tricks. Again.
These are called defining relative clauses because they define or
identify the noun that comes before them. But there's one
more kind of relative clause, like, my aunt who lives
in Brooklyn makes the best lasagna. Yum, my aunt totally
makes the best lasagna. Which aunt? You might ask me, Oh,
my aunt who lives in Brooklyn makes the best lasagna.
This part who lives in Brooklyn gives us extra information
about my aunt. We know it's my aunt, and who
lives in Brooklyn gives us extra information about her. This
part who lives in Brooklyn is not absolutely necessary, but
it's giving us extra information, so it's like a bonus.
It's a bonus detail, right, she lives in Brooklyn and
she makes the best lasagna. And these bonus detail clauses,
they're called non defining relative clauses. They just give us
extra information. And you might have noticed that when I
say that, I kind of paused a little. My aunt
who lives in Brooklyn makes the best lasagna. You hear
the pauses when you write these non defining relative clauses.
You use a comma before and after them to show
that pause. Jenny, who works in accounting, is also a
semi pro golfer. The car which Jack crashed into a
tree was in nineteen eighty Chevy. Did you hear the pauses?
So let's review where we are so far. Defining relative
clauses define the noun. The man who fixed my car
did a great job. We need who fixed my car?
Who fixed my car is essential information. Otherwise we don't
know which man we are talking about. If I don't
use the relative clause, we have this the man did
a great job. The man did a great job. Which man, Ah,
the man who fixed my car. See, these defining relative
clauses are essential and the sentence would be vague or
unclear without them. Or if I say the book is fantastic,
you'd be wondering, Oh, Michael, what book are you talking about? Ah?
The book which you lent me is fantastic. Essential information
right there. Huh. On the other hand, those non defining
relative clauses give us more or extra information about the noun.
They are like a side dish. They are good to know,
but not crucial to the main story. Like I wanted
to tell you that my aunt makes the best lasagna,
and when I say my aunt who live in Brooklyn,
makes the best lasagna. Well, now you have additional information
about my aunt. Not only does she make amazing lasagnia,
but she lives in Brooklyn. That's extra information about her,
not essential, but nice to know. And if I don't
say that, the sentence still makes sense. My aunt makes
the best lasagna, clear as day. Who I'm talking about
my aunt? And one last point. When you have a
defining relative clause like I was looking for the wire
which is connected to the printer, you can substitute that
for who or which I was looking for the wire
that is connected to the printer. But in a non
defining relative clause like Jenny who works accounting is also
a semi pro golfer. You can't replace who or which
with that. I can't say Jenny that works in accounting
is also a semi pro golfer. Remember the conversational pauses
and the commas when you write those sentences. If you
use commas, you can't use that. This is a handy
tip if you're taking one of those English exams like
toek Tofel or Aisles, and keep in mind the best
way to remember grammar like this and any other word
or phrase in English is to take that word or phrase,
write it in a sentence that's true for you or
true in your world, and then memorize your sentences and
check this out. Do you want to get more experience
speaking English, Well, well you can get the chance to
practice this kind of English with me directly. That's right.
You can get more practice using your English when you
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And on top of that, each episode has exercises where
you can practice this English point with speaking and writing
checked by me. To learn more, just visit Myhappy English
dot com and choose podcast lesson seven seventy three. Remember,
learning another language is not easy, but it's not impossible,
and I'm here to help you on your journey.
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