This document contains a series of blog posts by Alison Varela on the topic of grammar. The posts discuss various grammar topics such as relative clauses, relative pronouns, subject and object pronouns, defining and non-defining relative clauses, direct and indirect speech, changing tenses in indirect speech, and reporting verbs. The posts provide definitions and examples to illustrate key concepts. Links are included at the end of each post for additional online resources on the topics covered.

1. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VII
ALISON VARELA
October 3rd , 2014
Relative Clauses
Imagine, a girl is talking to Tom. You want to know who she is and
ask a friend whether he knows her. You could say:
 A girl is talking to Tom. Do you know the girl?
That sounds rather complicated,doesn't it? It would be easier with a
relative clause: you put both pieces of information into one
sentence. Start with the most important thing – you want to know
who the girl is.
 Do you know the girl …
As your friend cannot know which girl you are talking about, you
need to put in the additional information – the girl is talking to Tom.
Use „the girl“only in the first part of the sentence, in the second part
replace it with the relative pronoun (for people, use the relative
pronoun „who“). So the final sentence is:
 Do you know the girl who is talking to Tom?
You can see more information here :
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-clauses#h05

2. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VII
ALISON VARELA
October 7th , 2014
RELATIVE PRONOUNS
You can see more information here : http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-clauses#h05
relative
pronoun
Use example
who subject or object pronoun for
people
I told you about the
woman wholives next
door.
which subject or object pronoun for
animals and things
Do you see the
cat which is lying on the
roof?
which referring to a whole sentence He couldn’t
read which surprised me.
whose possession for people animals
and things
Do you know the
boy whose mother is a
nurse?
whom object pronoun for people,
especially in non-defining relative
clauses (in defining relative
clauses we colloquially
prefer who)
I was invited by the
professor whomI met at
the conference.
that subject or object pronoun for
people, animals and things in
defining relative clauses
(who orwhich are also possible)
I don’t like the
table that stands in the
kitchen.

3. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VII
ALISON VARELA
October 10th , 2014
SUBJECT AND OBJECT PRONOUN
Subjectand objectpronouns cannot be distinguished by their forms
- who, which, that are used for subject and objectpronouns. You
can, however, distinguish them as follows:
If the relative pronoun is followed by a verb, the relative pronoun is a
subjectpronoun. Subject pronouns must always be used.
 the apple which is lying on the table
If the relative pronoun is not followed by a verb (but by a noun or
pronoun), the relative pronoun is an objectpronoun. Object
pronouns can be dropped in defining relative clauses,which are
then called Contact Clauses.
 the apple (which) George lay on the table
You can see more here:
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-clauses#h05

4. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VII
ALISON VARELA
October 14th , 2014
DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES
Defining relative clauses (also called identifying relative clauses or
restrictive relative clauses) give detailed information defining a
general term or expression. Defining relative clauses are not put in
commas.
Imagine, Tom is in a room with five girls. One girl is talking to Tom
and you ask somebody whether he knows this girl. Here the relative
clause defines which of the five girls you mean.
 Do you know the girl who is talking to Tom?
Defining relative clauses are often used in definitions.
 A seaman is someone who works on a ship.
Object pronouns in defining relative clauses can be dropped.
(Sentences with a relative clause without the relative pronoun are
called Contact Clauses.)
 The boy (who/whom) we met yesterday is very nice.
You can see more here:
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-clauses#h05

5. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VII
ALISON VARELA
October 17th , 2014
NON – DEFINING RELATIVE
CLAUSES
" Non-defining relative clauses (also called non-identifying relative
clauses or non-restrictive relative clauses) give additional
information on something,but do not define it. Non-defining relative
clauses are put in commas.
Imagine, Tom is in a room with only one girl. The two are talking to
each other and you ask somebodywhether he knows this girl. Here
the relative clause is non-defining because in this situation it is
obvious which girl you mean.
 Do you know the girl, who is talking to Tom?
Note: In non-defining relative clauses, who/which may not be
replaced with that.
Objectpronouns in non-defining relative clauses must be used.
 Jim, who/whom we met yesterday, is very nice.
You can see more here:http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-clauses#h05

6. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VII
ALISON VARELA
October 21st , 2014
INDIRECT AND DIRECT SPEECH
STATEMENTS
There two ways to express a message of a person, or the words
spoken by a person to other person.
 Direct speech
 Indirect speech
Suppose your friend whose name is John tells you in school, “I will
give you a pen”. You come to home and you want to tell your brother
what your friend told you. There are two ways to tell him.
 Direct speech: John said, “I will give you a pen”.
 Indirect Speech: John said that he would give me a pen.
In direct speech the original words of person are narrated (no
change is made) and are enclosed in quotation mark. While in
indirect speech some changes are made in original words of the
personbecause these words have been uttered in past so the tense
will change accordingly and pronoun may also be changed
accordingly. In indirect speech the statement of the person is not
enclosed in quotation marks, the word “that” may be used before the

7. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VII
ALISON VARELA
statement to show that it is indirect speech. Indirect speech is also
called reported speech because reported speech refers to the
second part of indirect speech in which something has been told by
a person.
c
October24th , 2014
DIRECT SPEECH
Saying exactly what someone has said is called direct speech
(sometimes called quoted speech)
Here what a personsays appears within quotation marks ("...") and
should be word for word.
For example:
 She said, "Today's lessonis on presentations."
or
 "Today's lessonis on presentations",she said.
- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.html#sthash.PaRYxICa.dpuf

8. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VII
ALISON VARELA
October 28th , 2014
INDIRECT SPEECH
Indirect speech (sometimes called reported speech), doesn't use
quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn't have
to be word for word.
When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because
when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in
the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke
in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too.
For example:
 Direct speech
"I'm going to the cinema", he said.
 Indirect speech
He said he was going to the cinema.
- See more at: http://w w w .learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.html#sthash.PaRYxICa.dpuf

9. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VII
ALISON VARELA
October 31st , 2014
FROM DIRECT TO INDIRECT
SPEECH
We use a 'reporting verb' like 'say' or 'tell' If this verb is in the
present tense, it's easy. We just put 'she says' and then the
sentence:
 Direct speech: “I like ice cream.”
 Reported speech: She says she likes ice cream.
We don't need to change the tense, though probably we do need to
change the 'person' from 'I' to 'she', for example. We also may need
to change words like 'my' and 'your'.
But, if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change
the tenses in the reported speech:
 Direct speech: “I like ice cream”

10. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VII
ALISON VARELA
 Reported speech: She said she liked ice cream.
Tense Direct Speech Reported Speech
present
simple
“ I like ice
cream”
She said (that) she liked ice
cream.
present
continuous
“ I am living in
London”
She said she was living in
London.
past simple “ I bought a car” She said she had bought a car
OR She said she bought a car.
past
continuous
“ I was walking
along the street”
She said she had been walking
along the street.
present
perfect
“ I haven't seen
Julie”
She said she hadn't seen Julie.
past perfect* “ I had taken
English lessons
before”
She said she had taken English
lessons before.
will “ I'll see you
later”
She said she would see me later.
would* “ I would help,
but..”
She said she would help but...
can “ I can speak
perfect English”
She said she could speak perfect
English.
could* I could swim
when I was four
She said she could swim when
she was four.
shall I shall come later She said she would come later.

11. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VII
ALISON VARELA
should* I should call my
mother
She said she should call her
mother
might* "I might be late" She said she might be late
must "I must study at
the weekend"
She said she must study at the
weekend OR She said she had to
study at the weekend
- See more at: http:/ http://w w w .perfect-english-grammar.com/reported-speech.html
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