Somebody who changed something
Think of one person who has genuinely influenced how you work or think. Not a hero — somebody you actually knew.
Hold them. First, the language for saying who somebody is.
Eight expressions people use about others. Match each to what it actually says.
Two descriptions of one person
Description one
I want to talk about a teacher. Her name was Fernanda. She taught me in the second year. She was very strict. She read everything I wrote. She wrote comments on all of it. Nobody had done that before. She left the school in 2011. I still write differently because of her.
Description two
The teacher who changed how I write was called Fernanda, and she taught me for one year when I was fifteen.
She was the first person who read everything I gave her — not skimmed it, read it — and she wrote in the margins of essays that nobody else had bothered to finish. The comments, which were often longer than the essay, were never encouraging and never once unkind.
She left the school in 2011, which I did not find out until the following September, and I never thanked her.
Five questions comparing the two. Both contain the same facts.
1. Description one uses nine sentences for what description two says in three. What did the joining?
2. The teacher who changed how I write — what is the clause doing?
3. The comments, which were often longer than the essay, were never encouraging. Why the commas?
4. She left the school in 2011, which I did not find out until September. What does which refer to?
5. What can description two do that description one cannot?
Which one, or extra information
The two kinds, and what separates them
| Defining | Non-defining | |
|---|---|---|
| Job | Tells you which one | Adds extra information about one already identified |
| Commas | None | A pair, always |
that | Allowed | Never |
| Dropping the pronoun | Allowed, when it is the object | Never |
| Example | The teacher who changed how I write… | Fernanda, who taught me for a year, … |
| Remove the clause | The sentence stops making sense | The sentence still works |
Six lines of description two, out of order. Put them back into the order that introduces before it elaborates.
- She left the school in 2011, which I did not find out until the following September.
- She taught me for one year when I was fifteen.
- I never thanked her.
- The teacher who changed how I write was called Fernanda.
- The comments, which were often longer than the essay, were never encouraging.
- She was the first person who read everything I gave her.
Joining sentences
One or two words per gap. People, things, places, possession — each takes a different word.
The man taught me to drive was my uncle. The car he used had no working handbrake. The street we practised is now a bus lane. My aunt, car it actually was, never found out. And the day I passed, he was on holiday.
Six sentences from real descriptions. One error each.
1. The teacher which taught me was very strict.
2. Fernanda, that taught me for a year, left in 2011.
3. The book what I read was hers.
4. She was the first person who she read everything.
5. My aunt who lives in Braga is a doctor. — the speaker has one aunt
6. The comments which were often long, were never unkind.
Two minutes on one person
Task card · Speaking · Diagnostic · 2 minutes each
Describe the person who influenced you, to a partner who has never heard of them.
Two minutes, in as few sentences as you can manage. Fold the facts into the descriptions.
- Open by identifying them with a defining clause: the person who…
- Add at least two pieces of extra information about them, once identified.
- Include one thing they did that surprised you, and one thing they never did.
- Finish with what you still do differently. Try to say it in one sentence.
Listener’s job. Count two things: how many separate sentences they use, and how many relative clauses.
Then write down one sentence that could have absorbed the one after it. That is the compression that was available and not taken.
What two minutes produced
Five sentences of the kind this task produces. Fix each.
1. He was a man which never raised his voice.
2. My brother, that lives in Lisbon, works in a bank.
3. The person who he taught me most was my first manager.
4. She is the woman that her son was in my class.
5. My mother who is a nurse worked nights for twenty years. — the speaker has one mother
The comma is a claim
Three questions.
1. My sister who lives in Porto is a doctor. How many sisters?
2. Which pronoun can never appear between commas?
3. When can you drop the relative pronoun?
Before next lesson. Read one opinion piece — a column, a review, an editorial. Copy out four sentences containing a relative clause, exactly as written, including the punctuation.
Four exactly, and mark which have commas. The ratio will surprise you.