who, which, that and the if-clause

A clause is a piece of a sentence with a verb of its own, hooked onto its neighbour by a single word: who, which, that, if. In editing, a surplus it or which next to such a piece gets crossed out; in the reading task the same word decides which half fits the gap, and in the open gap-fill you write it in yourself.

Conditionals sit in this same article because they are assembled the same way: two pieces, each with a verb of its own, and one word, if or unless, that hooks them together.

A clause between subject and verb

A line in the editing format: if it holds a word that should not be there, cross it out.

What deceives here is length. Five words of somebody else belong to the inserted piece between the jacket and its verb, and by the time turned out comes round it feels as though the subject has been lost and has to be named again. It has not been lost: the piece that she found in a box has ended, and the sentence carries on exactly where it broke off.

The rule and a table

Clauses with who, which and that follow two rules, and both are about verbs.

Every piece has a predicate of its own and exactly one subject. The predicate is the verb that reports what happens: turned out, runs, broke down. The piece that she found in a box carries its own (found), the main sentence carries its own (turned out), and each of them is entitled to one subject, named once. A pronoun it, he, they immediately after a piece like that is a second name for the same subject, and it is surplus.

The word who, which or that takes the next verb for itself. Put it into a sentence with a single verb and the sentence itself is left with none: what remains is a fragment that reports nothing. So a word like that is in place when a verb is left over for the sentence itself, and surplus when it takes the only verb there is.

The next line comes from a different text, and a surplus word, if there is one, does not sit where it sat in the line about the jacket.

Two lines, two different errors: in the first a surplus word was added to the subject, in the second a surplus word took the predicate away.

The same choice in two other tasks

Reading halves. A half is chosen first of all by sense, but grammar at the join already rules some options out: the half has to hook onto the word before the gap.

One caution, because English allows something many languages do not: when the relative word is the object, it may be dropped, and the bread she bakes on Fridays is correct as it stands. Here the word is the subject of checks, so it has to stay, and a pronoun cannot stand in for it: a mechanic he checks names the mechanic twice.

Choosing the word and choosing the half are settled by one and the same question: what the piece hooks onto.

Word bank. The same question is asked of each gap in turn.

Three tasks, one question: what the piece hooks onto, and whether the sentence has a verb of its own. In the next item the noun before the gap decides nothing; the tense of the verb does.

The item with if

The word will sits in the half that talks about the consequence, and that half can take can, may or must instead when the sense needs it. In the half with if the verb stays in the present even though tomorrow is what is being discussed, and this is where a first language often interferes: some, Russian among them, mark the future in both halves, and the hand writes will in after if without asking. The same holds for unless, which already carries the not inside it: unless it rains means if it does not rain, and a second not after unless turns the meaning round.

Imagined and past conditions

One more short text with if, and this time nothing in it is about tomorrow.

would stays out of the half with if, just as will does. That half steps one tense back: the present for a real tomorrow, the past for an imagined now, and had + participle for a past that did not happen. The participle is the third form of the verb: booked, got, known. The other half takes would, and for the past that did not happen would have + participle. Some first languages, German and Russian among them, put a would-form into both halves, and if it would rain is that habit in English.

wish follows the same steps back: I wish I lived nearer is about now, I wish I had booked is about the past, and I wish they would stop is about somebody else's habit that annoys you.

Clauses and if in one text

A new text: the residents of a building have laid out beds in the courtyard. Some lines hold a surplus word, others are clean, and for a clean line the answer is ✓.

What to take away

Four tasks where this earns marks:

Editing: where a surplus it or a surplus which is crossed out Reading halves: where a half with who or which has to hook onto the word before the gap Open gap-fill: where the relative word or if is written in by hand Word bank: where who, which and where sit in the box