Which vs that + who vs whom Flashcards
Which/who vs that
1) If the information can be removed without affecting the meaning of the sentence, you can use which (which only for things):
ES:
The bouquet, which consisted of roses and tulips, looked really beautiful.
If we remove the relative clause, the sentence reads The bouquet looked really beautiful. While we know less about the bouquet, the sentence still expresses the same meaning
2) If the information is crucial to the meaning of the sentence, you can use that.
ES:
Pete wanted to buy a house that had a basement.
If we remove the relative clause this time, our sentence reads Pete wanted to buy a house. Unlike before, the sentence has a different meaning. Our original sentence stated that Pete was interested in a specific type of house: one with a basement. Our new sentence says that Pete would buy any house regardless of whether or not it had a basement
All of this means that the pronoun that is almost always used in restrictive clauses. Because of this, it is nearly always considered improper to use a comma before that when it is used as a relative pronoun.
✅ Correct: This is the amusement park that has the tallest ferris wheel.
❌ Incorrect: This is the amusement park, that has the tallest ferris wheel.
It is perfectly acceptable to use which in both restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses. Just remember that nonrestrictive clauses use commas and restrictive clauses do not.
Restrictive: The movie which he first made became a smash hit.
Nonrestrictive: The movie, which had a low budget, was surprisingly good.
who vs whom
who = is used as a subject
whom = is used as an object
A helpful tip to figure out which of these words you should use is to substitute the word they or them and see which makes more sense in a sentence
The company hired guides (who/whom) spoke Spanish.
Dennis was the one (who/whom) Albert gave the keys to.
In the first sentence, the guides are the ones who speak Spanish. We would say that they speak Spanish so we use the word who.
In the second sentence, Dennis received the keys from Albert. We would say that Albert gave him the keys so we use the word whom.
We use who and whom to refer to people. Some style guides also allow who and whom to refer to named animals. Grammatically, it is considered improper to use who and whom to refer to objects.
