Hey guys, I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on
adjective clauses and quantifiers, okay? Now if you want to know what an
adjective clause is you can check out any number of the lessons on
engvid.com that we have done in the past on this subject.
Today we are focusing on adjective clauses with quantifiers. Now
quantifiers are words that show a number, essentially. So here we have a
bunch of sentences a quantifier like "both", "one", "all". Okay, it can be
a number, "one", "two", "three", "four". It can be "a lot". It can be a
So here we have, well we actually have six sentences, but let's say three
sets of sentences. And I want you to tell me how can you combine these two
sentences into one, okay? So we have the first sentence. It says, "Chris
has two sisters. Both of them smoke." Now if you know anything about
adjective clauses, you know that there are two types.
There can be identifying, non-identifying -- non-identifying means it's extra
information. One thing you should know about adjective clauses with
quantifiers: they are always going to be non-identifying, which means it's
always extra information. So this information about Chris's sisters -- "both
of them smoke" is non-essential information, okay?
Let's put this together though, so we can say, "Chris has two sisters",
and as you know with adjective clauses -- non-identifying -- you put a comma ", both
of"... now we have "them". Hmm, what do you know about adjective clauses?
You always use relative pronouns, right? So what are some relative
pronouns in adjective clauses? We have "who", "whom", "that", "which",
In this situation, which one of those do you think we use? Okay, if you
said, "whom" you are absolutely correct.
Okay but you're saying, "Wait!
Alex, I learned that in adjective clauses we only use "whom" when the
subject is receiving an action."
In this situation, the sisters smoke. They're doing the action, it
should be "both of who smoke". Actually, in this situation, "whom". It
doesn't matter if it's subject, object, who's doing the action,
receiving the action -- you're always going to be using "whom" in the
Here we have "Nicki has two phones.
One of them is broken." So we can say,
one of"... okay, we have "them", so what do you think?
"Which", "whom", "who", "that", "where", "when", "whose"? Okay as we know,
With objects you use "which". Now you're saying, "We can use 'which' or
'that'." However, in adjective clauses with quantifiers, such as this, we
can't say, one of that is broken. We can only use "which" for objects.
Okay? So: "whom" for people, "which" for objects.
And finally we have "Tom's a writer. All of his books are popular." So
we're talking about Tom, but we're also talking about his books in the
second part of the sentence. So because we're talking about his books this
is a possessive, so with possessives we know that we use "whose".
"Tom's a writer, all of whose books are popular."
Okay, so what I have just shown you are the three relative pronouns that we
use with quantifiers and adjective clauses. And the only three you need to
know for this structure are "whom", "which", and "whose".
So, again, you can see the construction here, you have a quantifier: "both",
"one", "all". You always have "of", so "both of", "one of", "all of". And
then you have the relative pronoun, "both of whom", "one of which", "all of
whose". And again: "whom" for people, "which" for objects, "whose" for possessives.
And let me just show you one more little thing about this structure, and
then you guys can do the quiz.
Okay, so in the previous examples, you saw
the adjective clause with its quantifier in the second part of the
sentence. That is not the only possible position.As you can see in these
two sentences, it is also possible to put the adjective clause with the
quantifier, in the middle of the sentence.
So here we have, "J.K. Rowling, all of whose books are popular, is a great
writer." So we're saying J.K. Rowling is a great writer, and here you have
the quantifier. You're giving extra information about her. You're saying
all of her books are popular -- "all of whose books are popular, is a great writer."
In the second example, "The movie, most of which was boring, made me fall
asleep." So you're saying the movie made me fall asleep, and in the middle
part you're giving extra information, just like a regular adjective clause
and you're saying that, "most of which was boring". "Most of" what? The
movie, most of the movie was boring.
Okay guys, so just so you understand you can put the adjective clause with
the quantifier at the end of the sentence, in the second part. You can
also put it in the middle, after the subject that you're trying to
describe. In this case, J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, and here
you have the movie, whatever the movie was, all right?
Okay guys, if you want to test your knowledge of this, you can check out