"Which" or "that": Choosing between
them made easy
By
Tim North
info@betterwritingskills.com
http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com
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Consider
the following sentences. Both are acceptable, but
they mean quite different things.
The books, which have red covers, are new.
The
books that have red covers are new.
The
first sentence implies that ALL of the books are
new. The second implies that only the red books
are new.
In
the first sentence the words "WHICH have red
covers" are adding information about the books.
They're telling you more about the books than you
would otherwise have known.
In
the second sentence, the words "THAT have red
covers" are restricting the sentence. They're
limiting which books we're talking about. Without
them, we'd be talking about all the books. With
them, we're limited to talking about just the red
books.
This
distinction leads to a simple rule of thumb for
choosing between "which" and "that":
------------------------------------------------------
Use "which" (surrounded by commas) if
a group of words adds information. Use "that"
if it restricts.
------------------------------------------------------
Here's another example just to make that clear:
Elephants,
which have big ears, live in Africa.
Elephants
that have big ears live in Africa.
The
first of these sentences wrongly implies that ALL
elephants have big ears. (In fact, only African
elephants do. Indian elephants have small ears.)
Ah,
you learn the good stuff here don't you? :-)
The
second sentence restricts the elephants we're talking
about. It thus correctly implies that only African
elephants have big ears.
To
the total bewilderment of most American readers,
I shall point out that they're asking Noddy for
a ransom. :-)
Sorry.
Couldn't resist!
You'll
find many more helpful tips like these in Tim North's
much applauded range of e-books. More information
is available on his web site, and all books come with
a money-back guarantee. http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com
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