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, which or that
3

, which or that

, which or that

(OP)
In my nifty Microsoft Word Grammer checker, whenever I type something like this:

The subgrade which supports the slab.

I get a green squiggly that tells me I need to use one of the following to be correct:

The subgrade, which supports the slab.

or

The subgrade that supports the slab.

Which is more correct or appropriate to use?  When do I use ", which" and when do I use "that"?

RE: , which or that

Either suggestion by Bill Gates is correct. I get that all the time. I prefer the "that" option- has a more "definite" sound to it.

RE: , which or that

(OP)
That last paragraph makes sense - easy to remember:

Another way to keep them straight is to imagine by the way following every which: "Penn's ID center, which (by the way) is called CUPID. . . ." The which adds a useful, but not grammatically necessary, piece of information. On the other hand, we wouldn't say "The word processor which (by the way) is used most often is WordPerfect," because the word processor on its own isn't enough information — which word processor?

A paradoxical mnemonic: use that to tell which, and which to tell that.


Thanks!

RE: , which or that

3
When the clause is restrictive, you should use 'that'.  When the clause is non-restrictive, you should use 'which'.  To determine whether the clause is restrictive or not, ask yourself if the preceding noun is fully described without the clause.  In other words, if the clause is restricting the preceding noun to a specific instance, then 'that' is correct.

In your fragment, the preceding noun phrase is 'the subgrade'.  Do you know which subgrade?  Is there only one?  Does subgrade need to be restricted, or further defined, in order to remove ambiguity?

The house that is painted yellow is Grandma's.  In this case, 'the house' is restricted by the clause to one that is painted yellow, therefore 'that' is correct.  Another check is to remove the clause and ask if the sentence is unambiguous.  The house is Grandma's..  Which house?  It may be unambiguous in the larger context, but within the sentence, the clause is necessary to restrict house to a specific house.

Grandma's house, which is painted yellow, is on the corner.  In this case, house is fully defined, by Grandma's.  The color does not restrict the definition of house, therefore, 'which' is correct.  Grandma's house is on the corner.  As a stand alone sentence, it is complete and unambiguous.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

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