Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

The people who

we saw

=

‘The people

we saw’

Subject

Object

The people who saw

us

not

‘The people saw

us’

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Exercise 1

Match the pairs of sentences, then join them using whoor that.

1

I’m looking for a man

a

It leads to the garden.

2

I need a pencil

b

It leads to the town centre.

3

I can see the bridge

c

They broke the window.

4

This is the road

d

It sells cheap chocolate.

5

This is the door

e

He flew us home.

6

I’m looking for a shop

f

He can mend cars.

7

Those are the children

g

It has a sharp point.

8

That’s the pilot

h

It crosses the river.

Exercise 2

Join the two sentences using whoor that– the first one has been done for you.

1 The men ran away. (They robbed the bank)

The men who robbed the bank ran away.

2 The restaurant won a prize. (It did the best food) ___________________________________

3 The students are very clever. (They’re learning Russian) ___________________________________

4 The woman phoned the police. (She lost her passport) ___________________________________

5 The train was very full. (It was late)

___________________________________

6 The newsreader lost her job. (She sneezed on camera) ___________________________________

7 The artist refused to take any money. (He painted the Queen) ___________________________________

8 The tree is big. (It fell on our house)

___________________________________

9 The fish are pretty. (They live in the garden pond) ___________________________________

10 The ship was enormous. (It took us to the Caribbean) ___________________________________

214

Exercise 3

Decide which of these sentences can have the whoor that removed .

1 The film that I saw was exciting.

2 The house that we bought was very old.

3 The man who showed us round was very polite.

4 The instruction manual that came with the video was useless.

5 The policeman who we asked was helpful.

6 The computer that my brother bought was expensive.

7 The people that we met were fantastic.

8 The fireworks that they set off were stupendous.

9 The computer that sits on my desk is rather noisy.

10 The children who live next door are very friendly.

Language point 76 – relative clauses

with prepositions

We saw in Language point 75 that we can change:

We phoned the restaurant

into

The restaurant( that) we phoned

Now look what happens when we add a PREPOSITION:

We went to the restaurant

→

The restaurant( that) we went to

The preposition goes to the end when we turn the sentence into a relative. This happens even when we leave out the joining word whoor that, as when Justine and Helen say in Dialogue 2: (We went to the restaurant)

The one we went to

(We got thrown out of the restaurant)

The one we got thrown out of

Here are some more examples:

(James was talking to the woman)

The woman James was talking to

215

(The children are playing with the ball)

The ball the children are playing with

And here’s another example from the Dialogue:

(Most people don’t know about the public garden)

A public garden that most people don’t know aboutIn more formal English the preposition doesn’t move, and whichis added to it. But remember from the last Language point that we don’t use whichin RELATIVE CLAUSES in colloquial English:

‘A public garden about which most people don’t know’

Exercise 4

Complete the sentences by filling in the first blank with a phrase from the first box, and the second blank with a phrase from the second box. Use each phrase only once. The first one has been done for you.

1

The woman who I helpedwas very grateful.

2

The programme ____________ was ___________ .

3

The patient ___________ has ____________ .

4

The music ____________ was ___________ .

5

The trousers ___________ were ___________ .

6

The chair ____________ was _____________ .

7

The rubbish __________ was ____________ .

8

The meal ___________ was ____________ .

that I saw

that we were listening to

that Dave bought

that I was sitting on

that Henry cooked

that we threw away

who I helped

who was in hospital

very uncomfortable

rather boring

got better now

too short for him

very loud

really delicious

very grateful

rather smelly

216

Exercise 5

Join the pairs of sentences together without whoand that. Be careful where you put the PREPOSITIONS. The first one has been done for you.

1 Nobody knows about this shop.

→ This is the shop nobody knows about.

2 Justine works in this office.

→ __________________________________ .

3 I was sitting in that chair.

→ __________________________________ .

4 We’ve been listening to this music all morning.

→ __________________________________ .

5 I wrote the message on this piece of paper.

→ __________________________________ .

6 We lived in this town for five years.

→ __________________________________ .

7 Andy comes from this town.

→ __________________________________ .

8 I told you about these people.

→ __________________________________ .

9 I got my DVD-player from this shop.

→ __________________________________ .

10 I came with these students.

→ __________________________________ .

Dialogue 3

Fiona has been stopped in the street by a market researcher, who is asking her what she likes on TV.

MARKET

Now, first of all, could you tell me how much time RESEARCHER:

you spend every day watching TV?

FIONA:

Goodness! Let me think – well, on weekdays I’m usually back from work at about 5.30, and I generally switch the television on as soon as I come in.

217

M/RESEARCHER: Do you always leave the TV on all evening?

FIONA:

I usually do, yes. I probably have it on too much, actually, because I’m certainly not always watching it.

M/RESEARCHER: Now – what kind of programme do you like best?

FIONA:

Well, I like drama and nature programmes a lot.

And I often watch the soaps.

M/RESEARCHER: I see. And what about the late news bulletins?