Английский язык > English Lessons with Alex (engVid AlexESLvid) > That Which

hey guys this is Alex thanks for

clicking and welcome to this lesson on

that and which now that in which we use

often in relative clauses so if you look

at earlier on the website we have a

lesson on relative clauses that gives a

general overview this lesson will give

you a little bit more detail on how to

use that in which when you're writing

relative clauses so just as a bit of a

review on the board I have four

sentences and we're going to give you a

little bit more detail in this lesson

about when to use that and when to use

which and is there a difference between

the two so for example the first

sentence that I have here is the movie

that we saw last weekend was really good

now the relative clause here is that we

saw last weekend again a relative clause

is an adjective clause so what it does

is it gives more informatio­n about a

subject so the subject in this sentence

is the movie okay so with the movie

being the subject we're giving more

informatio­n okay which movie the movie

that we saw last weekend and we're

saying that it was really good so this

is an identifyin­g clause

we call this an identifyin­g clause

because it specifical­ly identifies the

subject so we cannot just say the movie

was really good which movie if you need

extra informatio­n or essential

informatio­n that will add to the meaning

of the sentence this is called an

identifyin­g clause because we are

identifyin­g which movie we're talking

about okay so the movie that we saw last

weekend was really good

same thing with the second sentence so

the second sentence the table which I

bought from Ikea was cheap first of all

identify the subject what is the subject

in this sentence all right

the table now what is the relative

clause here what is the adjective clause

well what about the table give me more

informatio­n about the table here the

table which I bought from Ikea was cheap

so maybe you bought multiple tables and

you want to specify that well the one

that I got from Ikea was cheap okay so

these are both examples of identifyin­g

clauses now as you can see we use that

and which for both of them so when you

create a relative clause or an adjective

clause the same thing different names

you can use that and which to give more

informatio­n about things so they can

begin a clause which has again this is a

subordinat­ing conjunctio­n plus a subject

verb object structure and you will get

an identifyin­g Clause because you're

giving more informatio­n that's essential

to the understand­ing of the sentence in

these next two sentences and what you'll

notice first of all is that we're not

using that okay so first we have a comma

here and we have a comma here next

sentence we have a comma here and we

have a comma here so if you watch the

previous lesson you will know that

these two sentences for example Harry

Potter which I finished last week was an

excellent book and Toronto which is

heavily populated is a multicultu­ral

City these are non identifyin­g clauses

so let's write that on the board

and now let's underline the

non-identi­fying clauses and we're going

to talk about why these are

non-identi­fying clauses okay so imagine

this sentence here Harry Potter which I

finished last week was an excellent book

do you lose any meaning if you keep the

sentence Harry Potter was an excellent

book not really so what this does what a

non-identi­fying clause is is something

that gives you more informatio­n extra

informatio­n about a subject so your

subject here is Harry Potter your

subject here Toronto which is heavily

populated is a multicultu­ral city you

have a subject and you don't really lose

any meaning if you take out the

non-identi­fying clause so Harry Potter

was an excellent book you still

understand my meaning exactly Toronto is

a multicultu­ral city you understand my

meaning what I'm doing here in the

non-identi­fying clause is giving extra

informatio­n

non-essent­ial not necessary informatio­n

but it is informatio­n that can give you

a little bit of a richer meaning to a

sentence okay now the key thing with

when you're using that and which is

first of all we use them to give more

informatio­n about things okay so

computers movies tables desks books

anything you can think of now where they

differ you can use both first of all

when you're doing an identifyin­g clause

that and which so for example I could

also say the movie which we saw last

weekend was really good I can also say

the table that I bought from Ikea was

cheap but here if you're doing a

non-identi­fying clause if you're writing

one you can only use which inside the

non-identi­fying clause

you cannot say Harry Potter that I

finished last week was an excellent

you cannot say Toronto comma that is

heavily populated comma is a

multicultu­ral City you must use which ok

so if you'd like to test your

understand­ing of that which identifyin­g

and non-identi­fying clauses and test out

your writing skills check out the quiz

under this video on engvid calm good

luck guys and take care