UNIT 6

INFORMATION QUESTIONS

Question words

Question words are also called wh questions because they include the letters 'W' and 'H'.

Question words	Meaning	Examples
who	person	Who's that? That's Nancy.
where	place	Where do you live? In Boston
why	reason	Why do you sleep early? Because I've got to get up early
when	time	When do you go to work? At 7:00
how	manner	How do you go? By car
what	object, idea or action	What do you do? I am an engineer
which	choice	Which one do you prefer? The red one.
whose	possession	Whose is this book? It's Alan's.
whom	object of the verb	Whom did you meet? I met the manager.
what kind	description	What kind of music do you like? I like quiet songs
what time	time	What time did you come home?
how many	quantity (countable)	How many students are there? There are twenty.
how much	amount, price (uncountable)	How much time have we got? Ten minutes
how long	duration, length	How long did you stay in that hotel? For two weeks.
how often	frequency	How often do you go to the gym? Twice a week.
how far	distance	How far is your school? It's one mile far.
how old	age	How old are you? I'm 16.
how come	reason	How come I didn't see you at the party?

Asking questions

1.If you ask about the subject of the sentence, simply add the question word at the beginning:
Example:
James writes good poems. — Who writes good poems?
2.If you ask about the predicate of the sentence (the part of a sentence which contains the verb and gives information about the subject), there are three options:

• If there is a helping (auxiliary) verb that precedes the main verb ( for example: can, is, are, was, were, will, would...), add the question word and invert the subject and the helping (auxiliary) verb.
  Examples:
  He can speak Chinese. — What can he speak?
  They are leaving tonight. — When are they leaving?
• If you ask about the predicate and there is no helping (auxiliary) verb and the verb is "to be", simply add the question word and invert the subject and the verb.
  Example:
  The play was interesting. — How was the play?
• If there is no helping (auxiliary) verb in the the predicate and the main verb is not "to be", add the auxiliary "do" in the appropriate form.
  Examples:
  They go to the movies every Saturday. — Where do they go every Saturday?
  He wakes up early. — When does he wake up?
  They sent a letter. — What did they send?

RELATIVE CLAUSES 

We use relative clauses to give additional information about something without starting another sentence. By combining sentences with a relative clause, your text becomes more fluent and you can avoid repeating certain words.

How to Form 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?

Relative Pronouns 

relative pronoun	use	example
who	subject or object pronoun for people	I told you about the woman who lives 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 whom I met at the conference.
that	subject or object pronoun for people, animals and things in defining relative clauses (who or which are also possible)	I don’t like the table that stands in the kitchen.

Subject Pronoun or 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 put on the table

Relative Adverbs 

A relative adverb can be used instead of a relative pronoun plus preposition. This often makes the sentence easier to understand.

This is the shop in which I bought my bike.
→ This is the shop where I bought my bike.

relative adverb	meaning	use	example
when	in/on which	refers to a time expression	the day when we met him
where	in/at which	refers to a place	the place where we met him
why	for which	refers to a reason	the reason why we met him

Defining Relative Clauses 

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.

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.

How to Shorten Relative Clauses? 

Relative clauses with who, which, that as subject pronoun can be replaced with a participle. This makes the sentence shorter and easier to understand.

I told you about the woman who lives next door. – I told you about the woman living next door.

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

Exercise 1Exercise 2
Exercise 3Exercise 4Exercise 5Exercise 6

Participles

1. Use

1. to shorten relative clauses
2. to make one sentence out of two
3. after verbs of ›perception‹ (e.g. see, watch, hear, listen to, smell, feel)
4. after verbs of ›rest‹ and ›movement‹ (e.g. run, go, come, stay, stand, lie, sit)
5. after the verb have
6. instead of a subordinate clause

2. Form

• Present participle: an exciting race
• Past participle: excited people

3. Examples

1. The cars which are produced in Japan are nice.
   The cars produced in Japan are nice.
2. I saw the man. He came to the shop.
   I saw the man coming to the shop.
3. I saw the car coming round the corner.
4. The girl sat sleeping on the sofa.
5. I have my clothes washed.
6. When they went to Texas they expected a better job.
   Going to Texas they expected a better job.

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Reduced relative clauses from hacersivil