DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

As the name suggests, defining relative clauses give essential information to define or identify the person or thing we are talking about. Take for example the sentence: Dogs that like cats are very unusual. In this sentence we understand that there are many dogs in the world, but we are only talking about the ones that like cats. The defining relative clause gives us that information. If the defining relative clause were removed from the sentence, the sentence would still be gramatically correct, but its meaning would have changed significantly.

Defining relative clauses are composed of a relative pronoun (sometimes omitted), a verb, and optional other elements such as the subject or object of the verb. Commas are not used to separate defining relative clauses from the rest of the sentence. Commas or parentheses are used to separate non-defining relative clauses from the rest of the sentence.

EXAMPLES

• Children who hate chocolate are uncommon.
• They live in a house whose roof is full of holes.
• An elephant is an animal that lives in hot countries.
• Let's go to a country where the sun always shines.
• The reason why I came here today is not important.

RELATIVE PRONOUNS

The following relative pronouns are used in defining relative clauses. These relative pronouns appear at the start of the defining relative clause and refer to a noun that appears earlier in the sentence.

	Person	Thing	Place	Time	Reason
Subject	who/that	which/that
Object	who/whom/that	which/that	where	when	why
Possessive	whose	whose

REPLACING WITH "THAT" IN SPOKEN ENGLISH

The pronouns who, whom, and which are often replaced by that in spoken English. Whom is very formal and is only used in written English. You can use who or that instead, or omit the pronoun completely. In the examples below, the common usage is given with the defining relative clause highlighted. The pronoun that would be used in more formal written English instead of that is given in parentheses.

EXAMPLES

• The dish that I ordered was delicious. (which)
• The man that came with her has already left. (who)
• The doctor that I was hoping to see wasn't on duty. (whom)

INCLUDING OR OMITTING THE RELATIVE PRONOUN

The relative pronoun can only be omitted when it is the object of the clause. When the relative pronoun is the subject of the clause, it cannot be omitted. You can usually tell when a relative pronoun is the object of the clause because it is followed by another subject + verb. See below, in the first sentence the relative pronoun cannot be ommitted because it is the subject of the relative clause ("the woman spoke"). In the second sentence, the pronoun can be omitted because "the woman" is the object of the verb "loved".

Noun, subject of the main clause	Relative pronoun	Verb + rest of relative clause	Verb + rest of main clause
The woman	that	spoke at the meeting	was very knowledgeable.
The woman	(that)	the man loved	was living in New York.

OTHER USES OF "THAT"

'That' is often used to introduce defining relative clauses when they follow the words something, anything, everything, nothing, all or a superlative. It may be omitted when it is not the subject of the clause.

EXAMPLES

• There's something (that) you should know.
• It was the best film (that) I've ever seen.
• Do you have anything that will help my throat?
• Everything (that) you say seems silly to me.
• Nothing (that) anyone does can replace my lost bag.
• I'm sorry, but that is all (that) I saw.

Ref: http://www.edufind.com/

Reporting sentences

Reporting different kind of statements

Put ‘that’ before the reported statement.

Use the reporting verb ‘said’ or ‘told’. Note that the verb ‘told’ should be followed by an object. The verb ‘said’ cannot be followed by an object.

Direct speech: Rohan said, ‘I like this music.’
Indirect speech: Rohan said that he liked that music.

Direct speech: Alice said, ‘James, I want you to attend the function.’
Indirect speech: Alice told James that she wanted him to attend the function. (NOT Alice said James…)

Reporting WH-questions

Omit the question mark.

Put the subject of the question before the verb.

Use a reporting verb like asked, requested, or wanted to know.
Put an object after the reporting verb.

Direct speech: ‘What are you doing?’ asked his father.
Indirect speech: His father asked him what he was doing. (NOT His father asked him what was he doing.)

Reporting Yes-No questions

Omit the question mark.

Introduce the reported question with whether or if.

Put the subject of the Yes-No question before the verb.

Use the reporting verb asked.

Direct speech: ‘Are you happy?’ he asked her.
Indirect speech: He asked her if she was happy.

Reporting imperative sentences

Put ‘to’ before the reported command or request.

Use a reporting verb like asked, told, ordered, requested, urged, advised or begged.

‘Alice, bring me a chair,’ said her father.
Alice’s father asked her to bring him a chair.

Ref: http://www.englishgrammar.org/

Stress in English pronunciation

Stress in English pronunciation

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STRESS

English is known as a stressed language. 
Stressed languages are languages spoken with differing degrees of emphasis on the words and syllables in the sentences. 

The content of this page is not intended to be a set of rules but rather an attempt to show
that native speakers of English use regular patterns of stress when speaking.

Although stress and intonation are an important part of English pronunciation, learners must
remember that it would be impossible for anyone to speak naturally with a set of rules in mind. 
By far the best way to improve one's pronunciation is through constant contact with native 
speakers of English, either through conversation, by watching films and news channels, or
listening to the radio. 

However, the patterns of stress outlined below may be useful to learners, for example when
preparing a discussion or a presentation, and help them to feel more comfortable. 

WORD STRESS

In English we accentuate or stress ONE syllable in a word. 

We pronounce that syllable louder than others.
There are words with just one syllable (e.g.. mind), and words with one STRESSED syllable
and one or more WEAK syllables (e.g. remind, reminder, reminding).
In the examples below, bold letters indicate stressed syllables.

1) When a noun or adjective stems from a one-syllable word, (for example art, mind), the stress
 usually stays on the syllable of the original word.

Art	artist
Break	breakable
Friend	friendly
Paint	painter
Come	become
mind	remind

2) To differentiate between a noun and a verb with the same spelling, stress position changes.

Noun	verb
a decrease	to decrease
an insult	to insult
an object	to object
a protest	to protest
a record	to record
a rebel	to rebel
a suspect	to suspect
a transfer	to transfer

3) In compound nouns (two words merged into one) the stress is on the first part:

• bookshop
• football
• notebook
• toothbrush

4) The stress is generally at the end of words ending in -eer.

• auctioneer
• engineer
• pioneer
• volunteer

5) Stress usually falls AFTER prefixes :
• demolish
• dismiss
• prepare
• untie

6) Stress usually falls on the syllable BEFORE the following letters:
 (The words below are just some examples - there are many more.)

Before -tion/-sion	Before -ic/-ical	Before -ity/-ety/-graphy/ -ody/-ogy	Before -ient, -cient, -ience, -ial, -ual - ious
Attention	Automatic	Authority	Convenient
Competition	Democratic	Majority	Efficient
Demonstration	Historic	Paternity	Experience
Explanation	Fanatic	Society	Essential
Invitation	Elastic	Variety	Official
Obsession	Biological	Geography	Potential
Permission	Illogical	Custody	Individual
Position	Philosophical	Rhapsody	Intellectual
Quotation	Political	Morphology	Conscientious
Repetition	Radical	Psychology	Judicious

STRESSED WORDS WITHIN SENTENCES

Not all words receive equal stress within a sentence in English.

Content words are stressed. Content words include:
Nouns (e.g. school, station, train)
Normal verbs (e.g. run, work, speak)
Adjectives (e.g. beautiful, tall, friendly)
Adverbs (e.g. quickly, noisily, badly)

Function words are unstressed. Function words include:
Determiners (e.g. a, an, the)
Auxiliary verbs (e.g. can, have, may, will, etc.)
Conjunctions (e.g. and, but, as, etc.)
Pronouns (e.g.  you, he, she, us, it, them, etc.) 

Even if the listener does not hear some quickly pronounced function words, the meaning
of the whole sentence should be clear. This is how native speakers of English communicate.
Emphasis is put on the most important words.
For example: "Would you like a cup of tea?"

It is a general rule of English that when there is a sequence of equal stresses, the last stressed
word should be the strongest, or the loudest - which in the above case would be tea. 

Try to imagine receiving a text message like "train delayed home late".
You understand that this means: 'The train has been delayed. I will be home late"
Only content words are used in the message but the meaning is quite clear.

In English, words are stressed according to the meaning the speaker wants to convey. 
For example, depending in which word in the following sentence is stressed, the meaning changes:

• Are you going to the cinema tonight? (or is it someone else?)
• Are you going to the cinema tonight? (or not?)
• Are you going to the cinema tonight? (or somewhere else?)
• Are you going to the cinema tonight? (or another night?)

During a conversation, learners should listen for stressed content words in order to understand
the meaning of the whole sentence.

Likewise, they should practice stressing content words in their speech so that other people
will understand them.