Which Vs That

Which Vs That

Well,Hi guys I'm Nouhaila from Speaking English With Nouha and in today's lesson, we are going to talk about two rather similar words. Two words that I know many of you have been confused: which one or that?

Which Vs That

Now, these words are exactly what we are going to talk about today, "who" or "it" in the related clauses. And I'll check that you've listened at the end of this lesson, because I have a mini-quiz to test you, right? Ten questions in a little over two minutes. So make sure you're careful.

No, someday I'll remember which one is which.

Which one is it then? Which or that?

These words are super, super common. They have many different uses and meanings, which creates confusion.

Which dog? That dog!
Did you see that?
Which way do I need to choose?

But we will not review all the different uses of "who" and "that" in this video today. There are lots of them! Today, we will focus on the difficult or difficult moments to determine. Which one or this? And it is when they are used in related clauses to introduce adjective clauses

But we will not review all the different uses of "who" and "that" in this video today. There are lots of them! Today, we will focus on the difficult or difficult moments to determine. Which one or this? And that's when they are used in related clauses to introduce adjective clauses.

But wait. Just take a break for a second here. Relative clause, adjective clause, what are we talking about? That sounds confusing! Let us look at some examples. It's a lot easier than it looks. Then take a look at this sentence here.

My car, which is brand new, is making strange noises.

Now, do you see that this sentence has two parts? Two separate pieces of information about the car.

My car which is brand new.
My car makes strange noises.

See how each of these clauses has a subject and a verb. That's what makes it a clause. Now, let's look at the clause that starts with "who". This clause gives us more information on the subject. It's not just my car, it's my brand new car. Thus, "who" and "that" are often used at the beginning of clauses that give more information on the subject. And these are the adjective clauses we talked about earlier. They describe the subject in more detail.

But there is an important difference that you must remember. "This" is used for essential clauses.

Now essential, you need it, it is necessary. You should use "this" when adding important information. Okay, without that, we wouldn't know exactly what you're talking about. We use "who" when the information is not essential. It is good to have additional information, but it is not necessary to have it to understand the meaning. Otherwise, we will always understand the clause in the sentence. Let's look at some examples together.

Do you remember my car? My new car. I use the word "who" in this sentence because the information that my car is new is not essential to the meaning of this sentence. I only have one car. If I take this part of the sentence, then the sentence still makes sense, doesn't it?

My car is making strange noises.

Same car, same problem. Just lacking a bit of detail. But now let’s look at a different example.

The car that I hired last week was making strange noises.

Now, I used "this" because it is essential and essential information. I'm trying to be specific about the car because I don't know what car I'm talking about. There are many cars to rent. Maybe I even drove more than one. So it's presenting information that helps me to specify which car, okay? We can't delete this part of the sentence, because then the sentence is not clear, right? It doesn't make any sense. What car was making noise?

For anyone who takes exams and writes essays - that kind of thing is another very important piece of advice I have for you. Have you noticed the difference between these two sentences? What is the difference? Except for "who" and "it." Yeah, it's the commas, right? This difference in punctuation is absolutely necessary. So, when you have an adjective clause beginning with "that", you don't need to use a comma. This information is essential, right? That is part of the meaning of the sentence. It cannot be removed.

If the adjective clause begins with "which", you must insert a comma before and after the clause. It gives the impression that it is an additional piece of information, which it is, doesn't it? Commas tell you that you can take it and delete it and that your sentence still makes sense.

Well, one more example and you will then be more than ready to answer the questionnaire at the end.

My dog that has spots is missing.

The fact that the dog has spots is not the brown, it is not the white. This information is essential, it's important information, right?

So let's compare this to my brother's dog because my brother only has one dog. He got the dog for his birthday and his dog is sick.

My brother’s dog is sick.

We don't need to know any more information about it, do we? We know which dog because he only has one. But if I wanted to give you some additional information to tell you a little more about the dog, I can use'who'.

My brother’s dog, which he got for his birthday, is sick.

So that’s extra information right? It’s not essential. So we used ‘which’ and we used commas.

All right, this all!

thank you for reading this, if you enjoyed the lesson say something or just  Hi in the comments and if you have any question or suggestion to the next lesson put them in the comments and I’m gonna answer to all of your questions.

See you soon in the next english grammar lesson.