English B1 · Relative clauses
영어 B1 주제 9 3:50 영어 내레이션 · 영어 + 중국어 자막 burned-in
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A relative clause is a small sentence inside a big one, glued on with who, which, that, where or whose. The girl who lives next door is my friend. And here is the single biggest word-order difference between Chinese and English: Chinese puts the description before the noun, wo xihuan de shu; English puts it after, the book that I like. The description flips sides. The memory hook: English nouns wear their descriptions behind them, like a backpack; Chinese nouns wear them in front, like a face.
The glue words. Who for people: the teacher who teaches us. Which for things: the pen which is on the desk. That for people or things, the friendly universal glue: the film that we watched. Where for places: the shop where I bought it. And whose for possession: the boy whose dog is famous, and whose works for things too — a book whose pages are missing. Notice the clause carries its own verb: the girl who lives next door IS my friend. Two verbs, one sentence, no comma at this level.
Pause and choose. The man who called me is my uncle. A person in subject position takes who, or that. Which serves things, whose shows possession, and where serves places; the man is none of those, however much he acts like furniture.
When the glue word is the object of the small sentence, you can drop it. The book that I bought: I bought it, so that can vanish; the book I bought is about pandas. But in subject position, never: the girl who lives next door is my friend. Drop the glue there and two verbs collide with no warning: the girl lives next door is my friend is a pile-up, not a sentence.
Pause and choose. The book that I bought can drop its that: the glue is the object of bought. The other two glue words are subjects, and subjects hold the small sentence up; remove them and the verbs collide.
The famous spare part: the book that I bought it is about pandas. That already carries the object job, so the it is a spare part; throw it away. The book that I bought, full stop. And a liberating rule: the clause borrows no tense from the big sentence. The girl who lives next door, the film that we watched; the big sentence and the clause choose their own times independently.
Pause and choose. The girl who lives next door is my friend. The description flips behind the noun: backpack, not face. The first option builds a hyphenated monster, and the last two rearrange the furniture until nobody can sit down.
Describe your world with one relative clause per noun. The teacher who teaches us English is patient; the patience which she has is legendary. The shop where I buy noodles is the shop whose owner knows my order; that is love. The homework I finished yesterday is the homework that nobody can find today. Classic.
Pause for four checks. The girl who lives next door: a person in subject position, glue required. The book that I bought: object position, glue optional. The shop where I bought it: a place takes where. And the boy whose dog is famous: possession takes whose. Next topic, the last of B1: gerunds and infinitives, the two costumes a verb wears when it becomes a thing.