Coffee Break English Season 4 Episode 7.
Hi and welcome to Coffee Break English.
I'm Josie. And I'm Mark and we're very happy to be back with you again for another episode of Coffee Break English.
Josie, what is today's topic?
Today we're learning about King Henry VIII, who was a very famous king in the UK.
And is there a language topic that we're going to be looking at?
Yes, today we're going to focus on relative pronouns, which is words like who, which, where and that.
Great. Let's get started then, and we'll hand over to Susan for her text.
Hi everyone, it's Susan reporting to you from London.
And today we're talking about a famous person from British history.
Let's get started. If you've ever picked up a history book, there's a good chance you've heard of Henry VIII of England.
The notorious king has become famous for having a lot of wives, with a total of six marriages during his life.
Many British children, who learn about Henry VIII at school, know a short poem, which helps them remember the order of Henry VIII's marriages.
And how they ended.
Divorced. Beheaded.
Died. Divorced. Beheaded.
Survived. King Henry VIII is also very famous for something that he did at the end of his first marriage.
During his first marriage, which was to Catherine of Aragon, Henry was angry that the couple didn't have a son.
They had a daughter.
But, at the time, it was only boys and men that could become the ruler of a country.
Henry was unhappy in his marriage, and he soon fell in love with another woman, Anne Boleyn, who was the sister of his mistress.
He wanted to end his marriage to Catherine, to be with Anne.
However, the Catholic Church, which didn't allow divorces, would not let this happen.
Henry could not leave Catherine without being punished.
He broke away from the Catholic Church, and formed the Church of England, leaving him free to divorce his wife.
The separation, which became known as the English Reformation, was a historic event in English history.
Henry didn't stop there.
Anne Boleyn was eventually beheaded.
And his third wife, who was called Jane Seymour, died after giving Henry the son he wanted.
After that, he had one more divorce from Anne of Cleves, and his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was beheaded.
He died during his sixth marriage, and was survived by his wife Catherine Parr.
She lived for about a year after his death, continuing to raise his children in a country that had been changed forever by their father's power.
Thank you, Susan. A complicated story.
Absolutely. So Henry VIII had six wives.
Wow. Let's go through the text again and learn more about his marriages.
If you've ever picked up a history book, there's a good chance you've heard of Henry VIII of England.
Yes, if you've ever picked up a history book, in this case, pick up means to lift something from a surface, maybe from a table or a shelf in this case.
But pick up has some other meanings, doesn't it?
Yes. For example, you could pick up your children from school.
That's right. That just means you go to the school and you take your children home again.
Okay. The notorious king has become famous for having a lot of wives, with a total of six marriages during his life.
Yes. The notorious king.
If someone is notorious, they are famous for doing something bad.
So famous in a bad way, really.
And the word wives is the plural of wife.
So one wife, two, or in Henry VIII's case, six wives.
That's right. This is an irregular plural.
So wife is spelt W -I -F -E, one wife, and wives is spelt W -I -V -E -S.
This same pattern happens with other words, for example, life, one life.
Two lives. Okay. Many British children who learn about Henry VIII at school know a short poem which helps them remember the order of Henry VIII's marriages and how they ended.
Yes. Many British children who learn about Henry VIII at school.
Here we have our first example of a relative pronoun, which is who.
A relative pronoun is basically a word which we use to add information in a sentence about a person or a place or a thing.
In this case, we're adding more information to this sentence about British children.
Many British children who learn about Henry VIII at school know a short poem.
Yeah. So it just gives us more information about those British children.
We could have said many British children know a short poem.
That's right. That's right.
And because we use who and this clause with commas to separate it from the rest of the sentence, this is like extra information we're adding here.
Okay. Now, we also get some extra information about the short poem.
That's right. They know a short poem which helps them remember the order of Henry VIII's marriages.
Now, in this case, we're using the pronoun which because we're adding information about the poem and a poem is a thing.
For things, we use which.
So we've used who as the relative pronoun when we're talking about a person or people, many British children, and then which when we're talking about a thing, a short poem which helps them remember.
Exactly. And this poem includes some interesting words.
Divorced, beheaded, died.
Divorced, beheaded, survived.
Yes. I have to say it's not the best poem I've ever heard, but I guess it does the job.
It does. So there are six waves and this poem lets us know what happened to each one.
So the first one, Henry VIII, divorced.
Yes. So the verb divorce means to legally end a marriage.
And of course, a marriage is the relationship between two people who are married.
Okay. And then the second wife was beheaded.
Yes. So to behead. It's not a very common verb because we don't need to use it very often.
Thank goodness. Yes.
Because to behead someone is to cut someone's head off.
Okay. It's not a very nice word.
No. The third wife died.
Then the fourth wife was divorced.
Fifth wife beheaded again.
And then the sixth wife survived.
Yes. And to survive means to stay alive, usually during a dangerous situation.
So maybe being married to King Henry VIII was a dangerous situation.
Okay. King Henry VIII is also very famous for something that he did at the end of his first marriage.
Yes. We have another example of a relative pronoun here.
King Henry VIII is also very famous for something that he did at the end of his first marriage.
Now, earlier we said that we need to use which as a relative pronoun to add more information about a thing.
We can also use that as in this case.
Josie, can we always choose between which or that?
Good question. Usually, if we are adding essential information that we need for this sentence, we can use which or that.
For example, here we could use which.
King Henry VIII is also very famous for something which he did at the end of his first marriage.
This is because the part of the sentence that comes after that or which is essential for the meaning of the sentence.
If we just said King Henry VIII is also very famous for something, full stop.
It doesn't make sense, does it?
Okay. That sounds strange.
Exactly. Exactly. Could we simplify this?
Yes. Good idea. Sometimes it can be a little bit difficult to understand this.
Let's think of an example involving a car.
Okay. Let's start with the situation where we could use both.
Absolutely. Where we can use which or that.
For example, we can say the car which is parked outside my house has a broken window.
Or the car that is parked outside my house has a broken window.
That's right. And we can use which or that because these words which or that, they are adding essential information about the car.
Essential information that we need to understand this sentence.
We need to know which car has a broken window.
That's right. It doesn't make sense to say the car has a broken window.
Which one? Exactly.
But a situation where we can only use which and not that is when we have a sentence and we add some information to it, some extra information that is not essential but is still interesting.
For example, I could say my new car, which is blue, is parked outside my house.
Okay. But we couldn't see my new car that is blue, is parked outside my house.
Exactly. We can't say that because this information is extra information.
I could also say my new car is parked outside my house.
And we don't really need to know what colour your new car is.
That's right. It's extra.
It's extra. Now, if that's a little difficult to understand, I recommend getting the free lesson notes for this episode so that you can see this text written down.
Okay. To help us work this out, let's take a little break.
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Welcome back to Coffee Break English.
We're talking about Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, and about relative pronouns.
Let's continue the text.
During his first marriage, which was to Catherine of Aragon, Henry was angry that the couple didn't have a son.
Okay, here we have another example of a relative pronoun, which, and this which is being used to add information about Henry VIII's first marriage.
During his first marriage, which was to Catherine of Aragon, Henry was angry that the couple didn't have a son.
So we are adding information here.
So I think that means that we can't use that.
That's right. That's right.
This information is extra.
So we can't say, during his first marriage, that was to Catherine of Aragon.
No. Sounds strange.
Exactly. Okay. They had a daughter, but at the time, it was only boys and men that could become the ruler of a country.
Good. So at the time, it was only boys and men that could become the ruler of a country.
Here, we're using that to add more information about the boys and men that we're talking about.
Could we use who here?
Exactly. We could. So that can replace who and which.
It can mean both things.
And this information that we're adding, boys and men, that could become the ruler of a country.
Would you say this is essential information or not, Mark?
I think that's essential information there.
It is. If we said, at the time, it was only boys and men, full stop.
That doesn't make sense.
Okay. There's another word in this sentence that's interesting.
A ruler. Yes. The ruler of a country is a person who rules.
That's the verb relating to this noun.
And to rule a country is to govern a country or to have power in the country.
For example, who is the ruler of the United Kingdom, Mark?
The ruler is Queen Elizabeth II.
Exactly. So usually a ruler is a king or a queen.
But the word ruler also means something else.
Yes, it does. A ruler is also something that you might use to measure something in centimeters or inches and to help you draw a straight line on a piece of paper.
Okay. Henry was unhappy in his marriage and he soon fell in love with another woman, Anne Boleyn, who was the sister of his mistress.
Yes, Henry was unhappy in his marriage.
So the opposite of happy, unhappy.
This is a negative prefix and we talked about them in episode five.
So he was unhappy in his marriage and he fell in love.
He started to be in love with another woman, Anne Boleyn, who was the sister of his mistress.
First of all, what's a mistress, Mark?
A mistress is a woman with whom a married man has a relationship, but who is not his wife.
Yes. So if a man is cheating on his wife, he has a mistress.
Okay. There's another relative pronoun in here, isn't there, Josie?
There is. When we talk about Anne Boleyn, with whom Henry fell in love, we add some information about her using who.
Anne Boleyn, who was the sister of his mistress, that's some extra information about her.
He wanted to end his marriage to Catherine to be with Anne.
However, the Catholic Church, which didn't allow divorces, would not let this happen.
Yes. Again, we've got witch, a relative pronoun, and this is adding some more extra information here.
The Catholic Church, which didn't allow divorces, would not let this happen.
And because that's extra information, we can't use that.
Henry could not leave Catherine without being punished.
Good. Without being punished, what does punish mean as a verb?
If you punish someone, you make someone suffer because they have done something wrong.
That's right. So maybe if a child is badly behaved or naughty in school, they might get punished.
Maybe they have to do some extra homework or something.
Okay. He broke away from the Catholic Church and formed the Church of England, leaving him free to divorce his wife.
Yes, he broke away from the Catholic Church.
To break away is to separate or to stop a connection with someone or something.
So he stopped his connection with the Catholic Church.
This separation, which became known as the English Reformation, was a historic event in English history.
Yes. And here again, we're adding more information about this separation from the Catholic Church.
We're giving it its name, this separation, which became known as the English Reformation.
Okay. Let's continue.
Henry didn't stop there.
Anne Boleyn was eventually beheaded.
And his third wife, who was called Jane Seymour, died after giving Henry the son he wanted.
Yes. So we're on to the next wife because Anne Boleyn was beheaded.
And his third wife, here we add some information about her using the relative pronoun who.
So his third wife, who was called Jane Seymour, died after giving Henry the son he wanted.
After that, he had one more divorce from Anne of Cleves.
And his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was beheaded.
Okay. Another beheading.
Let's continue. Yes.
He was survived by his wife Catherine Parr.
Now we talked about the verb survive.
Earlier it means to stay alive.
So what does it mean if someone is survived by someone else?
That means that Catherine Parr continued to live after Henry VIII died.
That's right. Exactly.
Let's finish off the text.
She lived for about a year after his death, continuing to raise his children in a country that had been changed forever by their father's power.
Yes. And here we have our final relative pronoun, that.
So Catherine Parr continued to raise Henry VIII's children in a country that had been changed forever.
So we're adding some information about the country, the UK in this case.
And this is essential information.
We need this to understand the sentence.
But because it's essential, we could choose between that and which?
Exactly. We could say she continued to raise his children in a country which had been changed forever.
Josie, can you explain raise?
What does to raise a child mean?
Yes. So to raise a child is to look after a child and to help them to grow up.
So if you have children, you raise them.
Okay. Let's listen again to the whole text now.
If you've ever picked up a history book, there's a good chance you've heard of Henry VIII of England.
The notorious king has become famous for having a lot of wives, with a total of six marriages during his life.
Many British children who learn about Henry VIII at school know a short poem which helps them remember the order of Henry VIII's marriages and how they ended.
Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.
King Henry VIII is also very famous for something that he did at the end of his first marriage.
During his first marriage, which was to Catherine of Aragon, Henry was angry that the couple didn't have a son.
They had a daughter.
But at the time, it was only boys and men that could become the ruler of a country.
Henry was unhappy in his marriage and he soon fell in love with another woman.
Anne Boleyn, who was the sister of his mistress, he wanted to end his marriage to Catherine to be with Anne.
However, the Catholic Church, which didn't allow divorces, would not let this happen.
Henry could not leave Catherine without being punished.
He broke away from the Catholic Church and formed the Church of England, leaving him free to divorce his wife.
The separation, which became known as the English Reformation, was a historic event in English history.
Henry didn't stop there.
Anne Boleyn was eventually beheaded.
And his third wife, who was called Jane Seymour, died after giving Henry the son he wanted.
After that, he had one more divorce from Anne of Cleves and his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was beheaded.
He died during his sixth marriage and was survived by his wife Catherine Parr.
She lived for about a year after his death, continuing to raise his children in a country that had been changed forever by their father's power.
Thanks everyone for listening to this episode of Coffee Break English.
We hope that you've learned some English, but we also hope that you've learned some history.
Absolutely. And in the next episode, we're continuing with the history theme and we'll be moving on to some US history.
Excellent. Now, if you would like to find out more about Coffee Break English, you can find us on social media.
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And if you'd like to get the free lesson notes for this episode, just go to coffeebreakenglish .com.
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We'll see you again soon.
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