What clauses and long phrases

What clauses and long phrases

Unit 12/Lesson A: Finding a career

Look at this sentence:

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- What a friend of mine did was interesting. 

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What is the subject of WAS in the sentence? 

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ANSWER: What a friend of mine did. This is called a WHAT CLAUSE. 

Now check out this other sentence:

​- The first thing to do is to decide on an area you are interested in. 

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What's the subject in this sentence?

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ANSWER: The first thing to do. This is called a NOUN PHRASE.

WHAT CLAUSES and LONG NOUN PHRASES

introduce important information.

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 Using a WHAT CLAUSE or a LONG NOUN PHRASE can be very effective when you want to introduce important information or give extra emphasis to the idea that follows.

They are often the subject of the verb be, which can be followed by a word or a phrase (noun, adjective, or verb) or by a clause. 

Examples of what clauses

• ​What she has are some good memories.

• ​What they found in that company is amazing.

• ​What I will do next year is (to) start my own business.

• ​What my father doesn't know is (that) I got a new job.

Examples of long noun clauses

• ​​The best thing she has are some good memories.

• ​The information they found in that company is amazing.

• ​The new thing I will do next year is to start my own business.

• ​Something that my father doesn't know is (that) I got a new job.

Check these sentences:

- What the plan does is to ensure a fair pension.

- What the plan does is ensure a fair pension.

Watch out for this!

Both are grammatical correct, and there's no difference in meaning. The version with "to" is somewhat more common in both American and British English.

Multiple Choice

Making a good impression is really important.

• What making a good impression is really important.

• What's really important is to make a good impression.

Multiple Choice

A friend of mine offered to help the manager.

• Something a friend of mine did is offer to help the manager.

• Something I did is to offer to help his manager.

Multiple Choice

My sister introduced herself to everyone.

• What my sister did was to introduce herself to everyone.

• Something herself did was to introduce my sister.

Fill in the Blank

Smile - that's the best thing you can do.

(Start with The...)

Fill in the Blank

Being polite with eveyone is what workers should do.

(Start with What...)