HI710{"id":709,"date":"2021-08-20T11:10:02","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T11:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/?p=709"},"modified":"2026-04-29T11:26:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T11:26:00","slug":"which-vs-that-are-you-using-them-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/which-vs-that-are-you-using-them-right\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhich\u201d vs. \u201cThat\u201d: Are you using them right?"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Which vs That<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><mark class=\"bs-highlight bs-highlight-default\"><em><strong>That<\/strong><\/em> is used for restrictive clauses.<\/mark><\/p>\n<p><mark class=\"bs-highlight bs-highlight-default\"><em><strong>Which<\/strong><\/em> is used for nonrestrictive clauses.<\/mark><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The house <strong><em>that<\/em><\/strong> has a big backyard is up for sale.<\/p>\n<p>The house, <strong><em>which<\/em><\/strong> has a big backyard, is up for sale.<\/p>\n<p>Are both the sentences telling us the same thing?<\/p>\n<p>You may say, \u201cYes\u201d. A big backyard will definitely make the house a quick sale! But that\u2019s not the point here.<\/p>\n<p>If you look closely at the words <em>which<\/em> and <em>that<\/em>, you might notice that the two sentences are not quite saying the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>So what is the difference? Let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n<p><em>Which<\/em> or <em>that<\/em>? <em>That<\/em> or <em>which<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p>These two words are a headscratcher for most of us. They endorse the fact that commonly used words are not necessarily easy to use.<\/p>\n<p>But what if I told you that these two words can be untangled after all?<\/p>\n<p>Just look for the <em>clause<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>I know that Christmas is not around the corner, but finding this <em>clause <\/em>shouldn\u2019t be a problem.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s look at our example: <strong>The house <em>that <\/em>has a big backyard is up for sale.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This sentence implies that the person has more than one house in mind, and that he\/she is talking about a particular house\u2014one <em>that<\/em> has a big backyard. Here, the clause <em>that has a big backyard <\/em>is a <strong>restrictive clause<\/strong>. It is providing us an essential characteristic of the house, which sets it apart from the other houses. Without this clause, we will not understand which house the person is talking about.<\/p>\n<p><em>That <\/em>is used for restrictive clauses.<\/p>\n<p>Here are more examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dogs <em>that<\/em> are abandoned by their owners are adopted by shelter homes.<\/li>\n<li>The therapy <em>that<\/em> the doctor recommended worked well for my father.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the other hand, a clause that provides nonessential information about the noun is a <strong>nonrestrictive clause<\/strong>. In most cases, these clauses are set off with commas.<\/p>\n<p><em>Which <\/em>is used for nonrestrictive clauses.<\/p>\n<p>Now, let\u2019s go back to the same example:<strong> The house, <em>which<\/em> has a big backyard, is up for sale.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>From this sentence, we understand that the person is just providing extra information through the nonrestrictive clause <em>which has a big backyard. <\/em>It is useful, but not necessary. Drop this clause, and the sentence would still mean the same in context.<\/p>\n<p>Here are more examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The unexpected package, <em>which<\/em> had no name, contained brand new shoes.<\/li>\n<li>His version of the story, <em>which<\/em> I found convincing, was discredited by the jury.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>American vs. British English <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Which<\/em> and <em>that <\/em>are used differently in American and British English. The distinction between <em>which<\/em> and <em>that, <\/em>as explained above, holds importance in American English. However, people who use British English commonly use <em>which <\/em>for both, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/\">restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses<\/a>. So, while using British English, you might not need to be careful with these words, but it is always useful to know the difference in the ideas they convey.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tip to remember the difference<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Again, I would say\u2014Look for the clause!<\/p>\n<p>If the clause talks about something essential, use <em>that<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>If not, go for <em>which<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Once you practice identifying the clauses correctly, using <em>which <\/em>and <em>that <\/em>at the right place would be a five-finger exercise!<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Which vs That &#8211; That is used for restrictive clauses. Which is used for nonrestrictive clauses.<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[176,17],"acf":[],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/24.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1068,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions\/1068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinka.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}