EDITING KNOWHOW That, which and who
SCBWI's Claire Watts shares her expertise on getting 'that', 'which' and 'who' in the right place.
We use the words ‘that’ and ‘which’ or ‘who’ to begin clauses within sentences all the time. But are you always sure you’re using the right one? Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that this is one of the areas where British English and American English differ.
That and which/who are relative pronouns. They introduce a clause that gives us information about the noun they follow.
The hat that I was wearing is under the chair.
The car, which someone stole yesterday, turned up in the car park today.
In each case, the clause gives more information about the noun that precedes that or which/who.
A restrictive clause is one that provides essential information about the noun that precedes it. If you leave it out it will affect the meaning of the sentence.
Restrictive clauses always take that in American English, but in British English it is acceptable to use which/who.
The hat that I was wearing is under the chair.
(or in British English: The hat which I was wearing is under the chair)
‘that I was wearing’ identifies the hat. Without this clause the reader doesn’t know which hat we’re talking about.
Note that you can often miss out the relative pronoun in a restrictive clause:
The hat I was wearing is under the chair.
A non-restrictive clause contains extra information about the noun that precedes it. It could be left out of the sentence without affecting the meaning. It is usually separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. Note that in a non-restrictive clause, you can’t miss out the relative pronoun.
The car, which someone stole yesterday, turned up in the car park today.
‘which someone stole yesterday’ does not identify the car. It gives us extra information about the car.
Contrast:
The car that someone stole yesterday turned up in the car park today.
Or
The car someone stole yesterday turned up in the car park today.
Here the clause identifies the car we are talking about. Only the car that someone stole yesterday has turned up in the car park; there are other cars involved in this story.
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Claire Watts is a writer and editor of fiction and nonfiction for children. Find her on Twitter and Instagram @evangelinecluck.
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Jo E. Verrill is an enthusiastic writer of humorous books for children, an advertising and broadcasting standards consultant and Words & Pictures’ KnowHow editor.
Got an idea for KnowHow, or a subject you’d like to hear more on? Let us know at knowhow@britishscbwi.org.
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