T3W1: Conjunctions – Whose

First of all, please once again, refer to your respective Learning Journals for the tips and strategies given on the said conjunction.

Just a recap, in using “whose” to connect two sentences into one:

(Noun/person) whose (noun/thing/belonging that belongs to the said noun/person)

Example:

1. The girl (noun/person) whose bag (the bag is the thing that belongs to the girl) is stolen, is crying badly.

2. James (noun/person), whose mother (mother belongs to James) works in the restaurant, is sick.

Please take note of where the comma is being placed.

Two commas will be used when the first noun used is a Proper Noun (name) (Example 2)

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Think about this: If I were to take away the middle portion like this:

1. The girl (noun/person) whose bag (the bag is the thing that belongs to the girl) is stolen, is crying badly.

We will get: The girl is crying badly.

Therefore the first clause and third clause has to make sense.

2. James (noun/person), whose mother (mother belongs to James) works in the restaurant, is sick.

We will get: James is sick.

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Therefore, when you are given two sentences in a Synthesis and Transformation question and when you are tasked to use “whose” to combine the two sentences, think:

1. Who is the main person?

2. Who/what is the belonging?

For example:

The woman runs a hair salon. The woman’s daughter is a dentist.

We can immediately detect the “belonging” with the apostrophe s (‘s).  If the woman’s daughter is the belonging, then the main noun should be the woman.

Following the tips in the given examples above:

The woman (noun/person) whose daughter (daughter belongs to the woman) is a dentist, runs a hair salon.

Now, let’s check if we are correct. Take away the middle portion, including “whose”:

The woman (noun/person) whose daughter (daughter belongs to the woman) is a dentist, runs a hair salon.

We will get: the woman runs a hair salon.

Check this against your original sentences given:

The woman runs a hair salon. The woman’s daughter is a dentist.

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Sometimes, additional details/words may precede the main noun/person. The strategies still say. For example:

I met the intelligent man (main noun). His father (belongs to the intelligent man) is a renowned artist.

When combined, you will get: I met the intelligent man whose father is a renowned artist.

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To further check on your understanding, try to combine the sentence below using the conjunction “whose”:

Tom was very sad. His house had been badly damaged by the fire.

Created by: Mrs Sofian