that – Fly High English

Posted on by Gareth

Structure: Relative clauses 2

Using relative clauses

In relative clauses 1 we looked at some of the basics of relative clauses. This time we’ll discuss another issue with them.

In some relative clauses it’s not necessary to use who, which, or that. You can use it if you want but you don’t have to. Let’s look at a couple of examples where it’s not necessary to use who and which.

The person (who) you met works for Emirates.
The book (which) you bought is expensive.

In these two examples we don’t have to use who and which. But how can we discover when we have to use who, which (or that) and we don’t have to? It depends on whether who, which (or that) is the subject or object of the verb. Very briefly, the subject of a sentence is the person or thing that performs an action. The object of a sentence is affected by the action. Look at the diagram below for more information.

As we can see, he performs the action and the plane is affected by the action (it is flown). Now let’s consider our examples above.

The person (who) you met works for Emirates.

In this sentence you met the person, so ‘you’ is the subject and ‘a person’ is the object is the verb ‘met’. Our rule is that if who, which (or that) is the object of our verb, then we don’t have to use it. Let’s look at our second example from above.

The book (which) you bought is expensive.

In this sentence you bought the book, so ‘you’ is the subject (‘you’ performed the action) of the verb and ‘the book’ is the object of our verb, then once again we don’t have to use which. To fully understand this idea about the subject and object of a verb can take time, so if you’re not sure it’s perfectly correct to use who, which (or that) all the time in relative clauses. When you become more comfortable with subjects and objects of verbs you can decide whether or not to use who, which (or that) in relative clauses.

Now try to write some examples of your own to help clarify when you don’t have to use who, which (or that).

Posted on by Gareth

Structure: Relative clauses 1

Using relative clauses

Relative clauses (which are parts of sentences) help the speaker identify the thing or person they are talking about. Let’s see an example.

The woman who we met is a pilot.

In the example above ‘who we met’ is the relative clause, it helps identify the woman we are talking about, without this information it would be impossible to know who the woman is. When we’re using a relative clause to help identify a person we use ‘who’.

The guy who bought your ticket is my cousin.

Again ‘who bought your ticket’ identifies the person we are talking about (and is the relative clause in the sentence).

In these situations we usually have the structure;
‘Person + who + verb (+ object) + information.’
The guy + who + bought + your ticket + is my cousin.

When we’re using a relative clause to help identify a thing instead of a person we use ‘which’. Let’s see an example.

The button which you pressed turns on the wipers.

In the example above ‘which you pressed’ is the relative clause, it helps identify the button (the thing) we are talking about.

The chart which you looked at is the wrong one.

Again ‘which you looked at’ identifies the thing we are talking about (and is the relative clause in this sentence).

In these situations we sometimes have the structure;
‘Thing + which + verb (+ object) + information.’
The chart + which + you looked at + is the wrong one.
(note there is no object in the example above)

Let’s look at another example

The man whose book you borrowed wants it back.

The chart whose corner you ripped is now useless.

In the example above ‘whose book you borrowed’ and ‘whose corner you ripped’ are the relative clauses, they help identify the man and chart we are talking about, without this information it would be impossible to know who the man is or which chart we’re talking about. The difference in these examples is that we use a possessive form ‘whose book’ (you borrowed) and ‘whose corner’ (you ripped) to identify the person and chart.

Tip: In these sentences we don’t use a comma between the noun and the relative clause.

We can also use that instead of who or which in the above examples.

The guy that bought your ticket is my cousin.
The chart that you looked at is the wrong one.

Tip: That can be used in other situations so be careful not to confuse the use of that in relative clauses with other uses of that. Click here and here to review the uses of that.

Remember to use who for people, which for things and whose + noun for possessive forms which help to identify somebody or something.

Now try to write some of your own examples using relative clauses to help identify a person of thing you are talking about.

Posted on by Gareth

Structure: ‘How to use “that” 2’

Using ‘that’

In our previous post we saw two common ways to use ‘that’. Today we’ll see two more ways to use ‘that’.

1. I am certain that he is a pilot.
The structure here is is/was + adjective + that + …. You can use ‘be’ in different tenses but the overall structure remains the same. After you use ‘that’ you can continue with verbs in different tenses, so you could use the present, past or future tenses etc…

Here are some more examples.
He was happy that nobody noticed his mistake.
They are sad that you will leave the airline next Friday.

Let’s look at another way to use ‘that.

2. It was reported that thirteen people were killed in the crash.
This is a more formal expression which we use to report what someone says or believes without saying who that person or those people are.
Notice the structure here; it + is/are + past participle + that….

Here are some more examples.
It is said that you have to have good stick and rudder skills to be a good pilot.
It is rumoured that the company is going to hire more employees.

Now try some examples of your own using the two different ways we looked at above.

Posted on by Gareth

Structure: ‘How to use “that” 1’

Using ‘that’

That is a very common word but also a word which can confuse people because we can use it in a few different ways.

First we’ll look at two of the ways that we can use it.

1. I know that pilot.
In this example ‘that’ is what we call a determiner, it helps to identify which thing or person you’re talking about. We also use ‘this’, ‘these’ and ‘those’ in a similar way. Note that we use that + noun here.

Let’s look at another example.

2. He said that the mechanic was late.
In this example we use ‘that’ as a conjunction (connecting word) to connect the two other parts together. Here are some verbs which are used in this way; say, agree, deny, suggest, believe, hope, remember, see, hear. Note that in this type of structure we use verb + that + clause

Here are some more examples.
I remembered that I had an exam.
I believed that he was an honest person.

Now try some examples of your own using the two different ways we looked at above.

Posted on by Gareth

Structure: ‘This, that, these & those’

This time in our structure help we talk about using this, that, these and those. We use them to help identify the things we talk about. This and these are used to talk about things that are close to you, that you can touch. That and those are used to talk about things that you can’t touch, that are farther away from you. Study the diagram and practice some examples yourself.

Have a great day!

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