IELTS Preparation Series 2, Episode 10: Durians

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Hello. I'm Margot Politis. Welcome to Study English, IELTS preparation.

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Today, we're going to look at the use of pronouns in a story about durian orchards.

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English uses a range of pronouns for different functions. For example, there are personal

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pronouns, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns and reflexive pronouns.

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Today, we're going to look at demonstrative and reflexive pronouns.

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But first we're going to meet Laura Fitzgerald, a durian researcher. She is describing a durian

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leaf. Listen to how she uses the demonstrative pronouns this and that.

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This is the underside of the leaf and we're seeing it at a 406 times magnification. These

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are the hairs that you see here. This is one of the reproductive structures of the pathogen

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and it's called a sporangia and what's happened is, it's been in a drop of rain and it's splashed

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on to the underside of the leaf and it's gotten caught in the hairs and it's what we call

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germinated and started to grow across the surface of the leaf.

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New research is investigating ways of inoculating, or vaccinating, durian trees grown in orchards

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with the good fungi to help the plant protect itself from disease.

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She says:

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This is the underside.

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These are the hairs.

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Demonstrative pronouns demonstrate both distance and number - how close something is, and how

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many there are.

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We can show this on a table.

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This is used for singular nouns that are near to you.

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These are used for plural nouns that are near to you.

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Laura is looking at a durian leaf, and referring to part of it. The leaf is very close to her,

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so Laura refers to it using the demonstrative pronouns for near things: this and these.

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This is the underside.

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These are the hairs.

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Now listen to Dr David Guest discussing the effect of the typhoon on the durian orchards.

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In 1994 in Thailand there was a typhoon around Chanta Buri, which is the main growing area.

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What happened after that typhoon is that some of the trees were damaged by the strong winds,

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but after that typhoon there was an epidemic of phytophthora, and some orchards were completely

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destroyed by that epidemic.

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He says:

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that typhoon

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that epidemic

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That is a demonstrative pronoun used with singular nouns that are far away.

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Those is used with plural nouns that are far away.

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The typhoon was distant or far away from the speaker. It was in Chanta Buri, Thailand.

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The typhoon was also distant in time. It was years ago, in 1994. This is why he refers

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to it as 'that typhoon'.

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So demonstrative pronouns apply not only to spatial relations near and far, but also to

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time relations now and then.

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In both cases, the pronouns convey distance.

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Let's look at some examples.

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I like this new movie better than that old one.

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This movie means a recent movie, a movie close to 'now' in time.

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That movie means an older movie, more distant in time.

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These biscuits are nicer than those.

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'These biscuits' means they are physically close to the speaker. 'Those biscuits' are

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further away.

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Listen to Dr David Guest again using 'that' for a different grammatical purpose.

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In 1994 in Thailand there was a typhoon around Chanta Buri, which is the main growing area.

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What happened after that typhoon is that some of the trees were damaged by the strong winds,

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but after that typhoon there was an epidemic of phytophthora, and some orchards were completely

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destroyed by that epidemic.

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He says: What happened is that some of the trees were damaged.

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The word that is not used as a pronoun here, but as a complement, introducing what happened.

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We can remove 'that' and the sentence means the same thing.

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What happened is some of the trees were damaged.

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You will see 'that' used as a complement most commonly when reporting speech, ideas or feelings:

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he said that

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she argued that

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they felt that

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That is the complement of the verbs said, argued and felt.

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By now you should be familiar with using demonstrative pronouns to make reference to time and space.

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Let's look at another group of pronouns - reflexive pronouns. There is one used twice used in

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this clip. See if you can pick it.

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Because there's a growing Asian population in Australia there's a growing demand for

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durians. So we import durians, mostly from Thailand and Thailand's certainly the world

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leader in durian production. Throughout Southeast Asia it's the most popular tropical fruit

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and the industry itself's worth somewhere between 2 or 3 billion US dollars a year.

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New research is investigating ways of inoculating, or vaccinating, durian trees grown in orchards

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with the good fungi to help the plant protect itself from disease.

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He says: the industry itself

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Itself is a reflexive pronoun.

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One of the functions of reflexive pronouns is for emphasis, to mean 'that person or thing

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and nobody or nothing else'.

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For example:

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The house itself is beautiful but the street is a bit noisy.

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I wasn't happy with the service, so I went to confront the manager myself.

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In these examples, the reflexive pronouns itself and myself refer back to the subjects

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of the sentences, the noun house and the pronoun I. They add emphasis to the statements.

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Let's look at the whole group of reflexive pronouns in this table.

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I might want to emphasise myself if I am speaking in the first person, or ourselves if I am

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talking about me and my friends, using the plural form.

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I could speak in the second person about yourself or yourselves.

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Using third person, I can emphasise himself, herself,

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itself or oneself. The plural form is themselves.

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All of these words are reflexive pronouns that can be used for emphasis.

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Listen to the clip again.

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Because there's a growing Asian population in Australia there's a growing demand for

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durians. So we import durians, mostly from Thailand and Thailand's certainly the world

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leader in durian production. Throughout Southeast Asia it's the most popular tropical fruit

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and the industry itself's worth somewhere between 2 or 3 billion US dollars a year.

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New research is investigating ways of inoculating, or vaccinating, durian trees grown in orchards

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with the good fungi to help the plant protect itself from disease.

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The reporter says: to help the plant protect itself from disease

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The reflexive itself refers back to the subject of this clause. The subject and the object

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are the same - the plant. A common use of reflexive pronouns is to refer

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to objects or actions where the subject and object are the same person or thing.

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For example:

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I cut myself shaving this morning. Not, I cut me.

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I got out of the bath and dried myself. Not, dried me.

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We made ourselves a cup of coffee. Not, made us.

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Ok, so today we've looked at pronouns. We've talked about demonstrative pronouns

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- this, these, that, those,

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and reflexive pronouns like myself, yourself, itself

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To find more help on pronouns, you can visit our website anytime. You'll find today's story,

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transcript, study notes and exercises.

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That's all for today. I'll see you next time on Study English. Bye bye.

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