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Who vs. Which vs. That

Rule: Who refers to people. That and which refer to groups or things.

Example: Anya is the one who rescued the bird.

Example: Lope is on the team that won first place.

Example: She belongs to an organization that specializes in saving endangered species.

Rule: That introduces essential clauses while which introduces nonessential clauses.

Example: I do not trust editorials that claim racial differences in intelligence.

We would not know which editorials were being discussed without the that clause.

Example: The editorial claiming racial differences in intelligence, which appeared in the Sunday newspaper, upset me.

The editorial is already identified. Therefore, which begins a nonessential clause.

NOTE: Essential clauses do not have commas surrounding them while nonessential clauses are surrounded by commas.

Rule: Do not use that twice in a row in a sentence.

Example: That is a problem which can’t be solved without a calculator.

The above sentence would be better written as follows:
That problem can’t be solved without a calculator.

Example: That is a promise which cannot be broken.

Again, the above sentence could be rewritten:
That promise cannot be broken.

Rule: Whenever you have more than one that or which in a sentence, see if you can rewrite it in a way that both shortens your sentence and removes at least one that or which.

Rule: Put that in the sentence when it is implied.

Example: Did you know he went to the University of Florida? OR
Did you know that he went to the University of Florida? (Correct)

Posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 1:21 am

4 Comments

4 Responses to “Who vs. Which vs. That”

  1. Buddy says:
    March 10, 2011 at 10:03 pm

    Which of the following is correct:
    (a) “I think I can.”
    (b) “I think that I can.”
    (c) Both.

    Reply
  2. Buddy says:
    November 15, 2011 at 10:25 pm

    The following is cited from http://grammarbook.com/grammar/whoVwhVt.asp: I do not trust products that claim “all natural ingredients” because this phrase can mean almost anything.

    The word “that” has already been used, thus “this” cannot be, correct? If so, how could the above example be corrected?

    Reply
    • Jane says:
      November 16, 2011 at 8:27 am

      In the example sentence, “I do not trust products that claim ‘all natural ingredients’ because this phrase can mean almost anything,” the word that is a conjunction. It is used as a function word introducing the essential clause. The word this is not serving as a conjunction in this case but rather as an adjective modifying the word phrase.

      Reply

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