¶ From Strunk and White:
That is the defining, or restrictive pronoun, which the nondefining, or nonrestrictive.
The lawn mower that is broken is in the garage. (Tells which one)
The lawn mower, which is broken, is in the garage. (Adds a fact about the only mower in question)
I always forget these little rules, but they are worth remembering in all forms of writing.
Comments
1
Interesting to bear in mind Bill Bryson’s take in Troublesome Words:
2
Ahh yes, the Little Book. I bought that when I was about to start writing my book. Very handy, indeed.
3
Small Paul – Strunk and White uses a similar passage from the Bible to illustrate use of which instead of that:
It goes on to say:
‘Which-hunting’? I like. ‘A which! A which!’
4
Yup, love the Little Book. :-)
I get quite infuriated though whenever I see Express Lane signs in supermarkets, since they always read “x items or less” instead of “x items or fewer”. Gah!
5
Thank you, I can never remember that. which to use an’ all.
6
That’s so freaky. Just today, while annoyed at a squiggly green underline in Word, I happened to google ‘that which’, and got a satisfying answer from the ever-reliable Paul Brian:
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/which.html
“I must confess that I do not myself observe the distinction between that and which. Furthermore, there is little evidence that this distinction is or has ever been regularly made in past centuries by careful writers of English. However, a small but impassioned group of authorities has urged the distinction; so here is the information you will need to pacify them.” [continues]
(Now, to continue to the page I was actually looking for on your site before this post distracted me…)
7
For what it’s worth, the that/which distinction is current in American English but optional in British English. In British English the difference often comes down to the comma used in the non-restrictive sense (the cat which is black versus the cat, which is black).
Having said that, I’ve changed my habits to use that and which American-style in technical writing at least, because it is less ambiguous.
8
Hi there. Count me in as another loyal user of The Elements of Style. Actually I just referenced the book myself on my blog; my topic dealt with the distinction betweeen nauseated and nauseous. Tying that to this blog post, therefore, should I speak of that which causes me to feed nauseated, or those things that are nauseous in their own right? :) Kind regards, Tim
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