A relative pronoun relates to the noun it is describing. Relative pronouns introduce a relative clause. Think of relative clauses as long adjectives. Adjectives are words that describe nouns.

Let’s start with an example sentence:

The woman who called me yesterday was my mother.

In this sentence who is the relative pronoun, and who called me yesterday is the relative clause. The clause is describing the noun woman.

In general, the relative pronouns who, that, and which do one of two things:

1. They help identify the noun or

2. They help give more information about the noun.

In the example sentence, the clause “who called me yesterday” identifies the noun, in this case woman.

When a relative clause adds more information about the noun, the clause is surrounded by commas. Here is an example sentence:

My mother, who called me yesterday, says she is coming to visit me this summer.

Who is just one example of a relative pronoun that you can use when talking about a person. Let’s listen to a scene from the comedy film Bridesmaids for another example. In this scene, the main character Annie is telling her best friend that she has changed. Listen for the relative pronoun:

“Lillian, this is not the you that I know! The you that I know would have walked in here and rolled your eyes and thought that this was completely over the top, ridiculous, and stupid!”

The relative pronoun Annie used in the scene is that — when she says “the you that I know.” In this sentence, that I know describes the noun you.

Both who and that can be used in relative clauses that describe a person. That can also be used to describe a thing. For example:

“The bike that I bought last week was stolen.” The relative clause “that I bought yesterday” describes the noun bike.

The relative pronoun which is also used to describe a thing.

Here is an example sentence using which.

“My bike, which I bought last week, was stolen.”

In this example, the relative clause “which I bought last week” adds more information about the noun bike. The clause is surrounded by commas.

Here are some general rules about commas and relative clauses:

–If the clause begins with the relative pronoun that, you do not need commas.

–If the clause begins with the relative pronoun which, you generally need commas.

—If the clause begins with the relative pronoun who, you need commas if the clause is adding additional information about the noun.

Here is an example sentence using the relative pronoun who, with and without commas.

1. My sister who lives in New York bought an apartment

2. My sister, who lives in New York, bought an apartment.

In the first sentence, the relative clause who lives in New York is identifying the noun sister. The speaker might have more than one sister. The clause “who lives in New York” is identifying which sister he or she is talking about.

In the second sentence, the same relative clause is adding additional information about the noun sister.

Sometimes, English speakers remove the relative pronoun altogether. Listen for the relative clauses in Shania Twain’s song You’re Still the One.

You‘re still the one

You‘re still the one that I love

The only one I dream of

You‘re still the one I kiss good night

In one line, she keeps the relative pronoun that. In the rest, she omits — or removes — the relative pronoun. If the relative pronouns that and who are followed by a noun or pronoun, they can be omitted. That makes the sentences “You’re still the one that I love” and “You’re still the one I love” both correct.

We can talk about other relative pronouns in another episode of Everyday Grammar. But for now, listen for the relative pronouns as we end this episode with the David Bowie song “The Man Who Sold the World.”

You‘re face to face

With the man who sold the world.

I’m Jonathan Evans.

And I’m Ashley Thompson.

Ashley Thompson wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Adam Brock edited and produced it.

Now it’s your turn. Practice using relative pronouns by describing your best friend. Start with this: “My best friend is someone who

Posted on April 9, 2016April 9, 2016 by sununubah

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The Cask of Amontilladoi

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09/10/2014

The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe

Poe created the first detective in fiction in this story. Written in 1844, it tells how a detective named Auguste Dupin solves a robbery. People say that Poe influenced modern detective fiction when he wrote a series of stories about the brilliant mind of Auguste Dupin.

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe is known as an original writer of horror stories. Read and listen to this classic tale about a man who thinks he has committed the perfect crime. Not even the police think there is anything wrong – until the man starts to hear a heart. It is beating louder and louder…

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04/08/2016

by Edgar Allan Poe

The Cask of Amontillado

Our story today is called “The Cask of Amontillado.” It was written by Edgar Allan Poe. Here is Larry West with the story.

Storyteller: Fortunato and I both were members of very old and important Italian families. We used to play together when we were children.

Fortunato was bigger, richer and more handsome than I was. And he enjoyed making me look like a fool. He hurt my feelings a thousand times during the years of my childhood. I never showed my anger, however. So, he thought we were good friends. But I promised myself that one day I would punish Fortunato for his insults to me.

Many years passed. Fortunato married a rich and beautiful woman who gave him sons. Deep in my heart I hated him, but I never said or did anything that showed him how I really felt. When I smiled at him, he thought it was because we were friends.

He did not know it was the thought of his death that made me smile.

Everyone in our town respected Fortunato. Some men were afraid of him because he was so rich and powerful. He had a weak spot, however. He thought he was an excellent judge of wine. I also was an expert on wine. I spent a lot of money buying rare and costly wines. I stored the wines in the dark rooms under my family‘s palace.

Our palace was one of the oldest buildings in the town. The Montresor family had lived in it for hundreds of years. We had buried our dead in the rooms under the palace. These tombs were quiet, dark places that no one but myself ever visited.

Late one evening during carnival season, I happened to meet Fortunato on the street. He was going home alone from a party. Fortunato was beautiful in his silk suit made of many colors: yellow, green, purple and red. On his head he wore an orange cap, covered with little silver bells. I could see he had been drinking too much wine. He threw his arms around me. He said he was glad to see me.

I said I was glad to see him, too because I had a little problem.

“What is it?” he asked, putting his large hand on my shoulder.

“My dear Fortunato,” I said, “I’m afraid I have been very stupid. The man who sells me wine said he had a rare barrel of Amontillado wine. I believed him and I bought it from him. But now, I am not so sure that the wine is really Amontillado.”

“What!” he said, “A cask of Amontillado at this time of year. An entire barrel? Impossible!”

“Yes, I was very stupid. I paid the wine man the full price he wanted without asking you to taste the wine first. But I couldn‘t find you and I was afraid he would sell the cask of Amontillado to someone else. So I bought it.”

“A cask of Amontillado!” Fortunato repeated. “Where is it?”

I pretended I didn‘t hear his question. Instead I told him I was going to visit our friend Lucresi. “He will be able to tell me if the wine is really Amontillado,” I said.

Fortunato laughed in my face. “Lucresi cannot tell Amontillado from vinegar.”

I smiled to myself and said “But some people say that he is as good a judge of wine as you are.”

Fortunato grabbed my arm. “Take me to it,” he said. “I’ll taste the Amontillado for you.”

“But my friend,” I protested, “it is late. The wine is in my wine cellar, underneath the palace. Those rooms are very damp and cold and the walls drip with water.”

“I don‘t care,” he said. “I am the only person who can tell you if your wine man has cheated you. Lucresi cannot!”

Fortunato turned, and still holding me by the arm, pulled me down the street to my home. The building was empty. My servants were enjoying carnival. I knew they would be gone all night.

I took two large candles, lit them and gave one to Fortunato. I started down the dark, twisting stairway with Fortunato close behind me. At the bottom of the stairs, the damp air wrapped itself around our bodies.

“Where are we?” Fortunato asked. “I thought you said the cask of Amontillado was in your wine cellar.”

“It is,” I said. “The wine cellar is just beyond these tombs where the dead of my family are kept. Surely, you are not afraid of walking through the tombs.

He turned and looked into my eyes. “Tombs?” he said. He began to cough. The silver bells on his cap jingled.

“My poor friend,” I said, “how long have you had that cough?”

“It’s nothing,” he said, but he couldn‘t stop coughing.

“Come,” I said firmly, “we will go back upstairs. Your health is important.You are rich, respected, admired, and loved. You have a wife and children. Many people would miss you if you died. We will go back before you get seriously ill. I can go to Lucresi for help with the wine.”

“No!” he cried. “This cough is nothing. It will not kill me. I won‘t die from a cough.”

“That is true,” I said, “but you must be careful.” He took my arm and we began to walk through the cold, dark rooms. We went deeper and deeper into the cellar.

Finally, we arrived in a small room. Bones were pushed high against one wall. A doorway in another wall opened to an even smaller room, about one meter wide and two meters high. Its walls were solid rock.

“Here we are,” I said. “I hid the cask of Amontillado in there.” I pointed to the smaller room. Fortunato lifted his candle and stepped into the tiny room. I immediately followed him. He stood stupidly staring at two iron handcuffs chained to a wall of the tiny room. I grabbed his arms and locked them into the metal handcuffs. It took only a moment. He was too surprised to fight me.

I stepped outside the small room.

“Where is the Amontillado?” he cried.

“Ah yes,” I said, “the cask of Amontillado.” I leaned over and began pushing aside the pile of bones against the wall. Under the bones was a basket of stone blocks, some cement and a small shovel. I had hidden the materials there earlier. I began to fill the doorway of the tiny room with stones and cement.

By the time I laid the first row of stones Fortunato was no longer drunk. I heard him moaning inside the tiny room for ten minutes. Then there was a long silence.

I finished the second and third rows of stone blocks. As I began the fourth row, I heard Fortunato begin to shake the chains that held him to the wall. He was trying to pull them out of the granite wall.

I smiled to myself and stopped working so that I could better enjoy listening to the noise. After a few minutes, he stopped. I finished the fifth, the sixth and the seventh rows of stones. The wall I was building in the doorway was now almost up to my shoulders.

Suddenly, loud screams burst from the throat of the chained man. For a moment I worried. What if someone heard him? Then I placed my hand on the solid rock of the walls and felt safe. I looked into the tiny room, where he was still screaming. And I began to scream, too. My screams grew louder than his and he stopped.

It was now almost midnight. I finished the eighth, the ninth and the tenth rows. All that was left was a stone for the last hole in the wall. I was about to push it in when I heard a low laugh from behind the stones.

The laugh made the hair on my head stand up. Then Fortunato spoke, in a sad voice that no longer sounded like him.

He said, “Well, you have played a good joke on me. We will laugh about it soon over a glass of that Amontillado. But isn‘t it getting late. My wife and my friends will be waiting for us. Let us go.”

“Yes,” I replied, “let us go.”

I waited for him to say something else. I heard only my own breathing. “Fortunato!” I called. No answer. I called again. “Fortunato!” Still no answer.

I hurried to put the last stone into the wall and put the cement around it. Then I pushed the pile of bones in front of the new wall I had built.

That was fifty years ago. For half a century now, no one has touched those bones. “May he rest in peace!”

Posted on April 3, 2016 by sununubah

Pictured here is the mineral iron pyrite. Also known as “Fool’s Gold.” Don’t be fooled. (Smithsonian, Museum of Natural History)

04/02/2016

Don’t Be Fooled

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And that brings us to the end of another Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English.

Just kidding!

To kid. To tease. To joke and fool around. They all mean about the same thing. If you kid, you make fun in a playful way. Teasing can be playful or mean spirited. It depends.

To joke around is to have fun with someone. To fool someone is to try to make them believe something that is not true. And that is the purpose of April Fools’ Day.

April 1^st is known as the day to fool people with practical jokes, pranks or harmless tricks. But how did this tradition begin? Some say April Fools’ Day began as one big mistake.

Many centuries ago, people in the Western world used the Julian calendar. They celebrated the New Year on April 1^st. However, when people began using the Gregorian calendar, the New Year was moved to January 1st.

Those who forgot the change and tried to celebrate New Year’s Day on the wrong date were teased and called “April fools.”

This is just one of the many theories behind the origin of April Fools’ Day. But the tradition remains the same – trying to fool someone.

The fool is a common character in art, music and literature. William Shakespeare is famous for his fools. And fools make for great pop songs.

The jester or fool is found in many plays. (PHOTO/Sheppard Ferguson)

Fools are found in many words, expressions and proverbs.

To be foolhardy means to do something that are too dangerous or risky. For example, it is foolhardy to hike up a mountain during a heavy snowstorm.

If something is foolproof, it is planned or made so well that nothing could go wrong. Not even a fool could mess it up.

“Look, I don’t want to get into trouble. This plan of yours sounds risky.”

“My plan is foolproof. Nothing will go wrong as long as you do exactly as I say.”

There are many expressions using the word “fool.”

If you are on a fool’s errand you are doing something that is pointless. For example, asking a friend who has no money for a loan is a fool’s errand.

Fool’s gold is iron pyrite. Iron pyrite is a brassy yellow mineral that is often mistaken for gold. Miners who did not know much about the properties of gold would often mistake iron pyrite for the real stuff.

A fool’s paradise is not a vacation spot for fools. It is a state of being happy for foolish or unfounded reasons.

Here is an example:

“Monica is so happy these days. She thinks she is getting a raise at work.”

“But she is always late. She misses her deadlines. And her boss doesn’t really like her.”

“I know. She is living in a fool’s paradise.”

Even a smart and reasonable person can be a fool at times. You can be a fool for love, a fool for money or a fool for success. Basically, you can be a fool for anything that causes you to lose control or lose touch with reality.

Connie Francis, pictured here in 1964, was a popular American singer. (AP Photo)

In this song, Connie Francis sings that everybody’s somebody’s fool.

“And there are no exceptions to the rule. Yes, everybody’s somebody’s fool.”

Fools also find themselves in many common proverbs.

For example, “A fool and his money are soon parted.” This means that if you are not careful with your money you will soon not have any.

Another proverb is, “There is no fool like an old fool.” This means if an older person behaves foolishly, it seems worse than when a younger person does the same. An older person should know better.

Then there is the proverb, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” This means that if you are tricked once by someone, they are to blame for fooling you. But if you let the same person fool you again, the blame is all your own. When George W. Bush was president, he infamously messed up this proverb in a speech.

We end this show with yet another “foolish” proverb, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” English poet Alexander Pope wrote this line in his 1709 poem An Essay on Criticism. Songwriter Johnny Mercer turned it into a classic song.

“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread …”

Share a “foolish” expression from your language. Or practice using one of these expressions in the Comments Section.

I’m Anna Matteo.

“So open up your heart and let this fool rush in…”

Anna Matteo wrote this program for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

The song and singer of the music heard in this piece includes, in order: “Chain of Fools,” Aretha Franklin; “A Fool Such As I,” Elvis Presley; “Everybody Plays the Fool,” The Main Ingredient; “Fooled Around and Fell in Love,” Elvin Bishop; “What Kind of Fool,” Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb; “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” Connie Francis; “Fools Rush in Where Angels Fear to Tread,” Rosemary Clooney.

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Month: April 2016

UPCOMING:

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Words in The Cask of Amontillado

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The Cask of Amontillado

Don’t Be Fooled