Word Choice That vs. Which - Proofread My Papers Academic Blog

Word Choice That vs. Which - Proofread My Papers Academic Blog Word Choice: That vs. Which The words â€Å"that† and â€Å"which† are tricky and even mentioning them in a room full of proofreaders is likely to cause an argument (especially if there’s a Brit about). Luckily, if all you’re interested in is communicating clearly in your written work, there’s a simple way of knowing which term is correct in any given situation. The important thing to know is â€Å"that† and â€Å"which† are both pronouns used when introducing a relative clause (i.e., additional detail about the thing being described). However, each is used in a slightly different situation. That (Restrictive Relative Clauses) The term â€Å"that† is used when introducing a restrictive relative clause (i.e., a relative clause that restricts the meaning of the sentence): All the houses that we rented were infested. In the above, the phrase â€Å"that we rented† identifies the specific houses being described (i.e., the houses that were rented, not those we didn’t rent). It is thus a â€Å"restrictive† clause and cannot be removed without changing the meaning of the sentence. Which (Non-Restrictive Relative Clauses) By contrast, â€Å"which† is used when introducing a non-restrictive relative clause (i.e., one that doesn’t restrict the meaning of the sentence): All the houses, which we rented, were infested. The â€Å"which† clause here introduces new information, but isn’t essential to the sentence: It tells us that we rented â€Å"all the houses,† but not which houses we’re referring to. Here we see the difference between â€Å"that† and â€Å"which.† Since we could remove â€Å"which we rented† without changing the overall meaning of the sentence, it is a non-restrictive clause. You’ll notice too that the â€Å"which† clause is contained within commas, indicating the use of a non-restrictive relative clause. We also use a comma when a non-restrictive relative clause appears at the end of the sentence: I spent years living in infested buildings, which wasn’t much fun. That or Which? Keeping in mind these differences, knowing whether to use â€Å"that† or â€Å"which† at any given point simply requires asking, â€Å"Does this clause change the meaning of my sentence?† If removing the additional detail would change the meaning of the sentence, you need to use â€Å"that.† If removing the detail doesn’t change the overall meaning, you should use â€Å"which† and set the clause within parenthetical commas. Remember: Restrictive relative clause (i.e., one that changes the meaning of the sentence) = That Non-restrictive relative clause (i.e., one that doesn’t change the meaning) = Which