Today’s blogpost is the result of a question from a reader in Tangier, Morocco, a beautiful part of the world. Thank you so much for getting in touch.
Here’s the question:
WHEN should I use who, which or that?
Yeah, I hear you all thinking. WHEN????
It’s confusing, isn’t it?
Some languages don’t distinguish between them.
A lot of native English speakers would find it challenging to explain it. I’m not going to lie: I really had to sit down and think about it. And I’m glad I did.
Let’s start with what these words are.
If you are a native English speaker or teacher, I hope you are reading this and paying attention, because you might need to freshen up your knowledge a little, just like I did. I kid you not.
So, to answer the question: Who, which and that are relative pronouns.
And what are they? I hear you ask…
Relative Pronouns are words that we use to link a pronoun or noun to an extra piece of information (or clause), thus modifying the state of the original pronoun or noun. Notice how your perception of the noun or pronoun (in red) is changed by the information which follows the relative pronouns (which, who, that)
Here are some examples:
· The book, ((which was published at the beginning of July)), is the author’s ninth best-seller.
· The author, ((who has published eight previous novels)), will be honoured by the President of Ireland.
· The new novel ((that we have been waiting two years for)), finally went on sale at the beginning of July.
I think a good, simple and concise way to clear up any doubts about these relative pronouns and when to use them is to assign them to one of the following four categories:
PEOPLE
GROUPS OR THINGS
NON-ESSENTIAL CLAUSES
ESSENTIAL CLAUSES
Stay with me! It’s so easy!
PEOPLE
When the noun or pronoun the relative pronoun refers to is a person, we almost always use WHO. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that we can also use THAT, however, personally, I prefer to use WHO.
· The author, ((who has published eight previous novels)), will be honoured by the President of Ireland.
· The woman, ((who incidentally is a Syrian refugee)), discovered the cure for the disease after several months of research.
In our examples WHO refers to the author and the woman and modifies our knowledge of them by providing extra information.
If you wanted, you could substitute THAT for WHO, but in my humble opinion, it just sounds less coherent. Don’t ask me why!
What I never EVER want to hear again is:
´ The government who…
´ The company who…
´ The country who…
NEVER AGAIN
GROUPS OR THINGS
When the noun or pronoun modified by a relative pronoun is not a person, then it is by default a “thing” or a “group”. There aren’t many more options, let’s be honest.
In such cases, we use WHICH or THAT.
*Mental note to self: WHO is exclusive to people, WHICH is exclusive to things or groups while THAT, (curiously) refers to both.
· We drove by my office, ((which is closed)), because today is a national holiday.
· We drove by the office, ((that my sister works in)).
Are you confused?
One sentence uses WHICH and the other one uses THAT.
Why?
How do you know when to use which?
It’s time to talk about defining and non-defining relative clauses.
I can almost hear you screaming on the inside… but no need to panic! Just keep reading.
DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES
THAT
The relative pronoun introduces information about the noun or pronoun which is essential (the relative clause). We need this information to really understand who or what the noun or pronoun is.
- The author that (relative pronoun) published eight novels is retiring (relative clause).
- This is the car that(relative pronoun) was involved in the accident (relative clause).
Occasionally, (and I do this very little), we omit or leave out the relative pronoun when it is the object of the verb:
He knows the people his brother met at the training course.
They were some of the facts the witness mentioned.
NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES
WHICH
Sometimes we use relative pronouns to introduce information about the noun that really is not very important or useful at all.
A bit of a waste of time… right?
But we still do it.
Let’s look at some examples:
· The car, ((which we bought at the end of the summer)), was second-hand.
The fact that we bought the car at the end of summer is irrelevant.
· The new novel, ((which we have been waiting two years for)), finally went on sale at the beginning of July.
Once again, you can see that some information is superfluous. The fact that we have been waiting for the novel for two years really adds nothing to the meaning of the sentence.
Notice how we need to punctuate non-defining relative clauses with lots of lovely commas!
So, to summarise.
Who v That
Who is used to introduce a person.
That, while it can occasionally be used for people, is normally used to introduce things or groups.
Which v That
Which introduces non-defining clauses (or non-essential) information. Non-defining clauses are punctuated with frequent commas.
That introduces information that is essential to our understanding, in other words defining clauses. Defining clauses do not need any extra punctuation.
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Have a great day, wherever you are reading.
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