Thursday 24 January 2013

RELATIVE CLAUSES

¿Qué es una relative clause?


Una relative clause (oración de relativo) da más información sobre la persona o cosa de la que uno está hablando. Por ejemplo,

The girls who work at that shop are really friendly.
Does the bus that goes to the airport stop here?

Muchos hispanohablantes cometen el error de repetir el sujeto en frases de este tipo. Por ejemplo,

The girls who they work at that shop are really friendly. X
Does the bus that it goes to the airport stop here? X

Aquí van más ejemplos de este error, y cómo corregirlo:

I have a friend who he works at the airport. X–> I have a friend who works at the airport.
Where are the flowers that they were on the table? X–> Where are the flowers that were on the table? 

Estas frases son otra variación sobre este tema:

Did you see the gift that I bought it for your mother? X –> Did you see the gift that I bought for your mother?
There are red wines that you should drink them cold. X –> There are red wines that you should drink cold. 

Hay otro tipo de relative clause que añade información menos necesaria. Por ejemplo, considera estas dos frases:

My brother who lives in Florida is a teacher.
My brother, who lives in Florida, is a teacher.

En la primera estoy diciendo que de todos mis hermanos, el que vive en Florida es profesor. En este caso, utilizo la relative clause para identificar a la persona de la que estoy hablando.
En la segunda estoy diciendo que mi hermano es profesor, y que, por cierto, vive en Florida. En esta situación utilizo la relative clause para añadir información “de paso”, no para identificar a la persona de la que estoy hablando.
En frases que no se refieren a personas, utilizamos which (y no that) en el segundo tipo de relative clause. Por ejemplo,

The companies that do business in Spain are having financial problemas. (That se utiliza para identificar el grupo de empresas al que se refiere la frase.)
These companies, which do business in Spain, are having financial problems. (Which se utiliza para añadir información menos esencial.)

Si todo esto te parece complicado, hay un truco muy sencillo: utiliza which y no that después de una coma.

Resumiendo…
Lo más importante es no repetir el sujeto en tus relative clauses. En general, utiliza who para personas y which o that para cosas, pero después de una coma, utiliza which en lugar de that.



TALKING ABOUT POLITICS



Aquí hay tres enlaces propiedad de Michael Beeson con listenings sobre el tema:


Descarga aquí (botón derecho, “Guardar enlace como” ): election vocab part 1 
Descarga aquí: election vocab part 2
Descarga aquí: election vocab part 3



Aquí tenéis una lista básica de vocabulario,


politics: la política
a politician: un político
a policy: una política
vote for someone: votar a alguien
run for president: presentarse como candidato para presidente
agenda: plataforma, programa electoral
liberal: en EEUU, progresista, de izquierdas
a poll: una encuesta electoral
the polls: las urnas, las mesas electorales
a close election: unas elecciones reñidas
undecided voters: votantes indecisos
voter turnout: participación electoral
to get out the vote: promover la participación electoral
to be in power: gobernar



TECHNICAL VOCABULARY: ONLINE DICTIONARIES



Not even a native speaker knows all the words of his own language. Technical vocabulary is used only by specialists and so is not generally known by non-specialists. Here you will find dictionaries and glossaries of specialized words in the English language. 


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