Relative Clauses / Adjective Clause: Mike, the luckiest guy I know. (English / ESL Video)

Synopsis of English / ESL Video

Follow the comical story of Mike, the luckiest guy in the world and teach relative clauses / adjective clause to upper-intermediate level learners.

Title of English / ESL Video

Mike – The Luckiest Guy I Know

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.
– Reduced clauses.

Student Proficiency Level

Upper-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: Relative Clauses / Adjective Clause

Approximate chronological order:

Storyline:

– Starts at 0:00. Ends at 4:04

Grammar Rules and Explanation:

Function:

– To identify people and things or to give more information about them.
– They act as adjectives and are hence also called adjective clause or adjectival clause.
– They are subordinate or dependent clauses and cannot be stand alone sentences.
– They begin with a relative pronoun: who, whom, whose, which or that.
– Or a relative adverb: when, where, why.

Forms:

– Relative pronoun / relative adverb + subject + verb
– Relative pronoun / relative adverb (as subject) + verb

Relative Pronouns:

– which = things: He works at the top modelling agency in town, which he loves.
– who = people: Mike’s mother is a loving woman, who makes him breakfast in bed every morning.
– Who is a subject pronoun and refers to the subject of the clause (i.e. the doer of the action).
– whom = people: Jessica gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, whom grew up to be a handsome young lad.
– Whom is an object pronoun and refers to the object of the clause (i.e. the receiver of the action.)
– Whom is not used very often today as it sounds unusually formal. Instead, we just use who to refer to both subjects and objects of clauses.
– Example: Jessica gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, who grew up to be a handsome young lad. (This sentence is perfectly acceptable.)
– whose = people: Barbara, whose personality was fun and outgoing, was the perfect match.
– Whose is the possessive relative pronoun of who and which.
– Whose and who’s are completely different words.
– Who’s = who is
– that = who/whom/which: In informal language we can use that to replace who, whom and which.
– Example 1 (whom): Mike went out and asked out the first girl that he saw.
– Example 1 (whom): Mike went out and asked out the first girl whom he saw.
– Example 2 (which): He had spent all the money that he found.
– Example 2 (which): He had spent all the money which he found.

Relative Adverbs:

– where = places: We used to play together at the playground where we made friends with the older kids.
– when = time: He was my best friend when we were at school.
– why = reason: This is why I love Hawaii.

Subject and Object of the Clause:

– Adjectival clauses can be used as either the subject or the object of the clause.
– Example 1 (subject of the clause): Barbara, who was the lucky girl, immediately said “yes”.
– Example 2 (object of the clause): Jessica gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, whom grew up to be a handsome young lad.

Defining Clause:

Function:

– To identify or classify nouns.
– To tell us which person or thing, or which kind of person or thing, is referred to.
– To give us essential information about the person or thing.

Details:

– Also known as identifying or restrictive clause.
– Example: Mike is the luckiest guy whom I know.
– There is no comma before the relative pronoun / relative adverb in defining clauses.
– We can use that to replace who, whom or which in defining clauses.
– Example: Mike is the luckiest guy that I know.

Reduced Clause:

– We can leave out the relative pronoun if they are the object of a defining clause.
– Example: Mike is the luckiest guy I know.
– We cannot leave out the relative pronoun if they are the subject of a defining clause.
– Example: Barbara, who was the lucky girl, immediately said “yes”. (We cannot leave out the who.)

Non-Defining Clause:

Function:

– To give which is non-essential information about a person or thing which is already identified.
– They do not identify or classify nouns.

Details:

– Also known as non-identifying or non-restrictive clause.
– Example: When Mike was jogging in the park, which he does every morning, he came up with a great idea.
– There is a comma before the relative pronoun / relative adverb in non-defining clauses.
– We cannot use that to replace who, whom or which in non-defining clauses.
– We cannot leave out the relative pronoun to make reduced clauses in non-defining clauses.

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

(1983)