Advanced English Grammar - Adjective Clauses + Quantifiers

Hey guys, I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on

adjective clauses and quantifiers, okay? Now if you want to know what an

adjective clause is you can check out any number of the lessons on

engvid.com that we have done in the past on this subject.

Today we are focusing on adjective clauses with quantifiers. Now

quantifiers are words that show a number, essentially. So here we have a

bunch of sentences a quantifier like "both", "one", "all". Okay, it can be

a number, "one", "two", "three", "four". It can be "a lot". It can be a

percentage, even.

So here we have, well we actually have six sentences, but let's say three

sets of sentences. And I want you to tell me how can you combine these two

sentences into one, okay? So we have the first sentence. It says, "Chris

has two sisters. Both of them smoke." Now if you know anything about

adjective clauses, you know that there are two types.

There can be identifying, non-identifying -- non-identifying means it's extra

information. One thing you should know about adjective clauses with

quantifiers: they are always going to be non-identifying, which means it's

always extra information. So this information about Chris's sisters -- "both

of them smoke" is non-essential information, okay?

Let's put this together though, so we can say, "Chris has two sisters",

and as you know with adjective clauses -- non-identifying -- you put a comma ", both

of"... now we have "them". Hmm, what do you know about adjective clauses?

You always use relative pronouns, right? So what are some relative

pronouns in adjective clauses? We have "who", "whom", "that", "which",

"whose", "where", "when".

In this situation, which one of those do you think we use? Okay, if you

said, "whom" you are absolutely correct.

Okay but you're saying, "Wait!

Alex, I learned that in adjective clauses we only use "whom" when the

subject is receiving an action."

In this situation, the sisters smoke. They're doing the action, it

should be "both of who smoke". Actually, in this situation, "whom". It

doesn't matter if it's subject, object, who's doing the action,

receiving the action -- you're always going to be using "whom" in the

quantifier.

Here we have "Nicki has two phones.

One of them is broken." So we can say,

"Nicki has two phones,

one of"... okay, we have "them", so what do you think?

"Which", "whom", "who", "that", "where", "when", "whose"? Okay as we know,

a phone is an object.

With objects you use "which". Now you're saying, "We can use 'which' or

'that'." However, in adjective clauses with quantifiers, such as this, we

can't say, one of that is broken. We can only use "which" for objects.

Okay? So: "whom" for people, "which" for objects.

And finally we have "Tom's a writer. All of his books are popular." So

we're talking about Tom, but we're also talking about his books in the

second part of the sentence. So because we're talking about his books this

is a possessive, so with possessives we know that we use "whose".

"Tom's a writer, all of whose books are popular."

Okay, so what I have just shown you are the three relative pronouns that we

use with quantifiers and adjective clauses. And the only three you need to

know for this structure are "whom", "which", and "whose".

So, again, you can see the construction here, you have a quantifier: "both",

"one", "all". You always have "of", so "both of", "one of", "all of". And

then you have the relative pronoun, "both of whom", "one of which", "all of

whose". And again: "whom" for people, "which" for objects, "whose" for possessives.

And let me just show you one more little thing about this structure, and

then you guys can do the quiz.

Okay, so in the previous examples, you saw

the adjective clause with its quantifier in the second part of the

sentence. That is not the only possible position.As you can see in these

two sentences, it is also possible to put the adjective clause with the

quantifier, in the middle of the sentence.

So here we have, "J.K. Rowling, all of whose books are popular, is a great

writer." So we're saying J.K. Rowling is a great writer, and here you have

the quantifier. You're giving extra information about her. You're saying

all of her books are popular -- "all of whose books are popular, is a great writer."

In the second example, "The movie, most of which was boring, made me fall

asleep." So you're saying the movie made me fall asleep, and in the middle

part you're giving extra information, just like a regular adjective clause

and you're saying that, "most of which was boring". "Most of" what? The

movie, most of the movie was boring.

Okay guys, so just so you understand you can put the adjective clause with

the quantifier at the end of the sentence, in the second part. You can

also put it in the middle, after the subject that you're trying to

describe. In this case, J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, and here

you have the movie, whatever the movie was, all right?

Okay guys, if you want to test your knowledge of this, you can check out

the quiz on www.engvid.com. Good luck!

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