Thursday, May 24, 2012

MSQ Grammar Lesson #2 Which vs Who vs That

Writer's often mistakenly employ one or all of these pronouns (Which, Who, That). Let's see when to use what:

Rule #1

"That" or "Which" refer to groups or things while "Who" refers to an individual.

Rule #2

"That" is employed when for an independent clause while "Which" is employed for dependent clauses. An independent clause is a statement that is a complete sentence and can, if need be, stand on its own. A dependent clause, on its own, does not form a complete sentence and exists to further describe the independent clause. If "Which" is employed in a dependent clause, surround the dependent clause with commas. For example, "That car, which your mother bought you, is going to need a carwash."
Exception: You can use "Which" to introduce an independent clause if you have already employed "That/Those/These/This" in the same sentence. For example, "Those are the socks which we paid $10 for?"

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