october

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZOBLOG OF GRAMMAR VII

ALISON VARELA

October 3rd , 2014

Relative Clauses

Imagine, a girl is talking to Tom. You want to know who she is and ask a friend whether he knows her. You could say:

A girl is talking to Tom. Do you know the girl?

That sounds rather complicated, doesn't it? It would be easier with a relative clause: you put both pieces of information into one sentence. Start with the most important thing – you want to know who the girl is.

Do you know the girl …

As your friend cannot know which girl you are talking about, you need to put in the additional information – the girl is talking to Tom. Use „the girl“only in the first part of the sentence, in the second part replace it with the relative pronoun (for people, use the relative pronoun „who“). So the final sentence is:

Do you know the girl who is talking to Tom?

You can see more information here : http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-clauses#h05


ALISON VARELA

October 7th , 2014

RELATIVE PRONOUNSrelative pronoun

Use example

who subject or object pronoun for people

I told you about the woman wholives next door.

which subject or object pronoun for animals and things

Do you see the cat which is lying on the roof?

which referring to a whole sentence He couldn’t read which surprised me.

whose possession for people animals and things

Do you know the boy whose mother is a nurse?

whom object pronoun for people, especially in non-defining relative clauses (in defining relative clauses we colloquially prefer who)

I was invited by the professor whomI met at the conference.

that subject or object pronoun for people, animals and things in defining relative clauses (who orwhich are also possible)

I don’t like the table that stands in the kitchen.

You can see more information here : http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-clauses#h05

October 10th , 2014


ALISON VARELA

SUBJECT AND OBJECT PRONOUN

Subject and object pronouns cannot be distinguished by their forms - who, which, that are used for subject and object pronouns. You can, however, distinguish them as follows:

If the relative pronoun is followed by a verb, the relative pronoun is a subject pronoun. Subject pronouns must always be used.

the apple which is lying on the table

If the relative pronoun is not followed by a verb (but by a noun or pronoun), the relative pronoun is an object pronoun. Object pronouns can be dropped in defining relative clauses, which are then called Contact Clauses.

the apple (which) George lay on the table

You can see more here:http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-clauses#h05

October 14th , 2014

DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES


ALISON VARELA

Defining relative clauses (also called identifying relative clauses or restrictive relative clauses) give detailed information defining a general term or expression. Defining relative clauses are not put in commas.

Imagine, Tom is in a room with five girls. One girl is talking to Tom and you ask somebody whether he knows this girl. Here the relative clause defines which of the five girls you mean.

Do you know the girl who is talking to Tom?

Defining relative clauses are often used in definitions.

A seaman is someone who works on a ship.

Object pronouns in defining relative clauses can be dropped. (Sentences with a relative clause without the relative pronoun are called Contact Clauses.)

The boy (who/whom) we met yesterday is very nice.


October 17th , 2014


ALISON VARELA

NON – DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

" Non-defining relative clauses (also called non-identifying relative clauses or non-restrictive relative clauses) give additional information on something, but do not define it. Non-defining relative clauses are put in commas.

Imagine, Tom is in a room with only one girl. The two are talking to each other and you ask somebody whether he knows this girl. Here the relative clause is non-defining because in this situation it is obvious which girl you mean.

Do you know the girl, who is talking to Tom?

Note: In non-defining relative clauses, who/which may not be replaced with that.

Object pronouns in non-defining relative clauses must be used.

Jim, who/whom we met yesterday, is very nice.


UNIT 2October 21st , 2014


ALISON VARELA

INDIRECT AND DIRECT SPEECH STATEMENTS

There two ways to express a message of a person, or the words spoken by a person to other person.

Direct speech Indirect speech

Suppose your friend whose name is John tells you in school, “I will give you a pen”. You come to home and you want to tell your brother what your friend told you. There are two ways to tell him.

Direct speech: John said, “I will give you a pen”. Indirect Speech: John said that he would give me a pen.

In direct speech the original words of person are narrated (no change is made) and are enclosed in quotation mark. While in indirect speech some changes are made in original words of the person because these words have been uttered in past so the tense will change accordingly and pronoun may also be changed accordingly. In indirect speech the statement of the person is not enclosed in quotation marks, the word “that” may be used before the statement to show that it is indirect speech. Indirect speech is also called reported speech because reported speech refers to the


ALISON VARELA

second part of indirect speech in which something has been told by a person.

c

October24th , 2014

DIRECT SPEECH

Saying exactly what someone has said is called direct speech (sometimes called quoted speech)

Here what a person says appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.

For example:

She said, "Today's lesson is on presentations."

or

"Today's lesson is on presentations", she said.

- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.html#sthash.PaRYxICa.dpuf

October 28th , 2014


ALISON VARELA

INDIRECT SPEECH

Indirect speech (sometimes called reported speech), doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn't have to be word for word.

When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too.

For example:

Direct speech "I'm going to the cinema", he said.

Indirect speech He said he was going to the cinema.

- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.html#sthash.PaRYxICa.dpuf

October 31st , 2014


ALISON VARELA

FROM DIRECT TO INDIRECT SPEECH

We use a 'reporting verb' like 'say' or 'tell' If this verb is in the present tense, it's easy. We just put 'she says' and then the sentence:

Direct speech: “I like ice cream.”

Reported speech: She says she likes ice cream.

We don't need to change the tense, though probably we do need to change the 'person' from 'I' to 'she', for example. We also may need to change words like 'my' and 'your'.

But, if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change the tenses in the reported speech:

Direct speech: “I like ice cream”

Reported speech: She said she liked ice cream.


ALISON VARELA

Tense Direct Speech Reported Speech

present

simple

�I like ice cream � She said (that) she liked ice

cream.

present

continuous

�I am living in

London�She said she was living in

London.

past simple �I bought a car � She said she had bought a

car OR She said she bought

a car.

past

continuous

�I was walking

along the street �She said she had been

walking along the street.

present

perfect

�I haven't seen

Julie �She said she hadn't seen

Julie.

past

perfect*

�I had taken

English lessons

before �

She said she had taken

English lessons before.

will �I'll see you later � She said she would see me

later.

would* �I would help,

but.. �She said she would help

but...

can �I can speak

perfect English �She said she could speak

perfect English.

could* I could swim

when I was four

She said she could swim

when she was four.

shall I shall come

later

She said she would come

later.


ALISON VARELA

should* I should call my

mother

She said she should call her

mother

might* "I might be

late"

She said she might be late

must "I must study at

the weekend"

She said she must study at

the weekend OR She said

she had to study at the

weekend

- See more at: http:/ http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/reported-speech.html

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