How to Use Relative Pronouns & Clauses in English? Ask Alisha

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Begin the asking of the questions.

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them.

Maybe!

First question this week.

First question this week, actually, two questions come from Benjamin.

Hi, Benjamin.

Benjamin asks, “Number one, is it correct to say, ‘You stupid boy,’ in terms of

grammar?”

Yes, it is correct to say a phrase like “you” plus some kind of noun phrase.

In this case, “stupid boy.”

Some other examples are “You idiot!” or, “You legend!” for example.

We use this sort of expression to express approval.

So, we like something someone did or disapproval, we dislike something someone did.

So, in this case, in this example that you've provided, “You stupid boy,” we would say

it in a negative way.

It's expressing disapproval and calling someone stupid.

“You stupid boy!” in that case.

We can also change “you” to “my” to create something a little bit more close.

Like, “my perfect child,” for example, or, “my favorite person,” for example.

So, we can use these small expressions to show happy feelings or negative feelings.

So, yes, it is grammatically correct but it's sort of--think of it like an exclamation kind

of.

Like you're excited in a negative or a positive way about something.

I hope that helps.

Your second question, “What is S-O-S-I-G?”

I had to Google this because I didn't know.

This is an internet joke.

S-O-S-I-G is a joke.

It's the misspelling.

Imagine a child is learning to spell the word “sausage” and maybe misspells it in this

way, S-O-S-I-G.

It's an internet joke related to Gordon Ramsay and a picture.

You can google the joke.

It's something kind of from the weird sense of humor part of the internet.

Next question!

Next question comes from Alexander.

Hi, Alexander.

Alexander says, “Could you please explain the difference between ‘Here I am,’ ‘Here

you are,’ ‘Here / there we you go’ and how to use it correctly?”

Yes, please check this video where I talked about all of those things.

The only thing I did not talk about in this video is the expression, “Here I am.”

So, I will explain “Here I am,” in this video.

“Here I am” is used usually by children to identify your location.

So, kids, when playing games, maybe you know hide-and-seek, for example.

When children reveal their location, they'll often say, “Here I am!” or they'll jump

out from someplace to identify themselves.

So, you can use, “Here I am,” to identify yourself.

It's like I say it's more commonly used by children.

There are fewer cases where we need to use this expression as adults but if you want

to identify yourself, you can say, “Here I am,” this is the location where I am at.

So, “Here I am,” means I'm identifying my location, this is my position.

But, please, check the other video for more details about your other questions.

Thanks very much.

Next question!

Next question comes from Hansel from South Korea.

Hi, Hansel.

Hansol says, “Alisha, what's the difference between ‘strange,’ ‘odd,’ ‘weird’

and ‘bizarre.’

And, I'm also not sure if I can use between ‘here’ or ‘not.’”

Yeah, that’s fine.

What's the difference or what are the differences between these words?

So, “strange,” “odd,” “weird” and “bizarre.”

“Strange” tends to have a negative connotation.

Something that is not quite right, something that is not typical.

Like, “Ugh, that was kind of a strange bar.”

Like it sounded not good.

Or, “Ugh, this food looks a little strange.”

So, “strange” tends to have a little bit of a negative nuance.

“Odd” sort of means that something, again, is different from the typical, is different

from usual but it doesn't always have a negative nuance.

It could mean something that's curious like, “Hmm, that's odd.

Why did she leave her keys here?”

“Hmm, that's odd.

Why isn't he in the meeting today?”

So, something that's different from the typical behavior but not necessarily negative.

“Weird” is a very casual expression.

We use weird a lot just to mean something is different.

It kind of has a casual but very light negative meaning.

So, if your friend is acting strangely, “Your acting weird today,” or, “Ugh, that was

a really weird food,” or like, “Ooh, I ate something weird.”

“Bizarre,” however, it's kind of something that you expect to be normal but it's not,

is kind of bizarre.

Something that's bizarre.

“President has bizarre behavior,” “The president tweets bizarre things,” for example.

“That show was bizarre.”

I hope that that's kind of a nice introduction to the differences between these words.

Next question!

Next question comes from Causick.

Hi, Causick.

“First, what is the difference between ‘maybe,’ ‘perhaps,’ and ‘probably?’

Yep, common question.

Please check this video.

“What is the difference between ‘maybe,’ ‘perhaps,’ ‘probably’ and ‘possibly?’”

also in this video.

Please check this video for the answers to this question.

Your second question, “When can we use ‘eventually’ and ‘gradually?’”

“Eventually” means in the end.

For example, “Eventually, I got to the airport.”

“In the end, I got to the airport.”

“At the end of the story, I got to the airport.”

“Eventually, I passed the test.”

We use “eventually” for the finishing statement, the last statement in the story

or the last thing that we want to explain.

The thing that we achieved or the thing that ended our path.

“Gradually,” however, is used before the end of something.

We use “gradually” to talk about the steps we take to achieve something.

“I gradually made my way to the airport.”

“I gradually improved my English by studying every day.”

We don't use “gradually” before the final action.

We use “gradually” to show the steps towards achieving some goal or towards achieving some

kind of final step.

Thanks for the question.

Next question from Jegga.

Yega, Jegga?

I don't know, I'm sorry.

Jegga or Yega asked.

“How do we use conjunctions like ‘which,’ ‘that,’ ‘who,’ ‘what’ in the middle

of a sentence.

Please, explain.”

Perhaps, this question is about relative pronoun.

“Which,” “who” and “that” are examples of relative pronouns.

We use relative pronouns at the beginning of a relative clause.

We use “which” and “that” for objects.

We use “who” for people and we can use “that” for people, as well, though, it

sounds a little more casual.

“My teacher, who is from America, has brown hair.”

So, I use “who” at the beginning of that relative clause, “who is from America.”

“My teacher, who's from America, has brown hair.”

“This phone, which is an iPhone, is useful.”

In this sentence, I'm talking about my iPhone so I use a relative pronoun for objects, “which.”

So, “which” comes at the beginning of that relative clause, it shows I'm adding

information.

“This phone, which is an iPhone, is useful.”

So, “which is an iPhone,” is the extra information in that sentence.

I used a relative pronoun to show, to kind of mark the start of that.

This is just a very quick introduction to relative pronouns.

Maybe I can make a whiteboard video about these in the future.

The next question is from Cheyenne.

Cheyenne says, “What do ‘to nip in the bud’ and ‘by fits and starts’ mean?”

“To nip in the bud” means to stop something before it begins or just as it begins.

So, “to nip,” the image of “to nip” is like to cut to something, to make a small

cut.

And, “bud” refers to like a new flower.

So, “to nip something in the bud” means to cut it when it's at the beginning stages

of something like cutting a flower.

So, “to nip it in the bud” means to stop something before it begins or to stop something

before it becomes bigger.

“By fits and starts,” or, “in fits and starts,” this expression means doing something

in short bursts of activity.

So, many people, for example, study in fits and starts.

So, meaning, they study, study, study for maybe a couple days and then forget for a

while.

And then, go back to it again and then stop.

So, that's something we can explain with “by fits and starts.”

So, “She studied in fits and starts.”

I've seen both “by” and “in” prepositions used for this expression.

“By fits and starts,” “in fits and starts.”

So, short bursts of activity.

Hope that helps you.

Okay, so, those are all the questions that I want to answer for this week's episode.

I hope it was helpful for you.

Remember, you can send your questions to me at EnglishClass101.com/ask – alisha.

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and check us out at EnglishClass101.com for some other good stuff too.

Thanks very much for watching this episode of Ask Alisha.

I will see you again next week. Bye-bye.