Relative Clause / Adjective Clause: Mind-Bending Universe Theories (English / ESL Video)

Synopsis of English / ESL Video

Enlighten your students with some mind-bending universe theories & present relative clause / adjective clause with relative pronouns at the intermediate level.

Title of English / ESL Video

Mind-Bending Theories about the Universe

Target English Grammar

Relative clauses (also known as adjective clause or adjectival clause):
– Defining clauses (also known as restrictive clauses or identifying clauses).
– Non-defining clauses (also known as non-restrictive clauses or non-identifying clauses).
– Relative pronouns.
– Relative adverbs.

Student Proficiency Level

Intermediate level grammar

Suggested Courses

General English

Instructions

– Play the video in class after delivering a warm-up activity first.
– Pause the video whenever the narrator asks students a question to give students time to answer. For example, after elicitations and concept checking questions (CCQs).

Summary of English Grammar: Relative Clause / Adjective Clause

Approximate chronological order:

Theories about the Universe:

– Starts at 0:00. Ends at 5:10
– The Simulation Hypothesis
– The Many-Worlds Theory
– Quantum Theory and Consciousness
– The Hologram Universe Theory
– Speed of Light and Time

Grammar Rules and Explanation:

Function:

– To give information about a person, place, thing or time.
– They are common in everyday communication and also in academic writing.
– Two types of clauses: defining and non-defining clause.
– Also known as: restrictive and non-restrictive or identifying and non-identifying clause.

Form:

Relative pronoun / relative adverb + subject + verb

Defining Clause:

Function:

– To give essential information to identify a person, place, thing or time.

Relative Pronouns:
– who = people: Maybe in one new universe you married someone who didn’t go to school with you.
– which = things: In future, our computers will be advanced enough to create simulations which are as realistic as real life.

Relative Adverbs:

– where = place: The universe is a place where everything is a hologram.
– when = time: Travelling faster than the speed of light will send you back to a time when nothing existed.
*No comma before the relative pronoun or relative adverb.
*that = who or which (in informal language)
– Example 1: In future, our computers will be advanced enough to create simulations that are as realistic as real life.
– Example 2: Maybe in one new universe you married someone that didn’t go to school with you.

Non-Defining Clause:

Function:

– To give non-essential information. The sentence makes sense without it.

Relative Pronouns:

– which: Computers today can already create highly complex simulations, which are very realistic.
– who: Last year you married your partner, who was your classmate at school.

Relative Adverbs:

– where: You’re actually just looking at a blank surface, where fake images are projected on.
– when: One day, when human technology is advanced enough, we will know the truth.
*Notice that there is a comma before the relative pronoun or relative adverb.
*We can’t use that to replace who or which.

Possessive Relative Pronoun:

whose = of who / of which
– It is the possessive relative pronoun of both people and things.
– Example 1 (thing): The brain is a computer whose function is to store our consciousness.
– Example 2 (person): Albert Einstein, whose reputation is world famous, is one of the inventors of quantum theory.

*** English / ESL Video: No Music Version ***

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