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Subject:Re: Which, that Grammar? From:Janice Gelb <janiceg -at- marvin -dot- eng -dot- sun -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 13 Feb 2002 13:09:32 -0800 (PST)
Ed Manley wrote:
>
>MS Word's grammar checker and I disagree on the use of the words "that"
>and "which".
>
>Consider the sentence "If an election is submitted with a tender price
>which has already been bid on, the elected units from that election are
>added to what is already allocated." Is which correct in that context?
>Never mind that the rest of the sentence sucks - just stick with that
>issue which is before us.
>
>How about that word which appears again in this one "The Notice List
>will be modified to include notices which have Related Holdings assigned
>to the eTRAN User."?
>
Both sentences should use "that" not "which."
My favorite explanation of "that" vs "which" that doesn't
involve confusing grammar terminology comes from a
lovely old piece of software for the Mac called
Editorial Advisor:
SENTENCE 1: "I enjoy mysteries, which are suspenseful."
MEANING: I enjoy mysteries and, as an additional fact, mysteries
are suspenseful. The main meaning of this sentence would not
change if the clause starting with "which" were to be deleted.
SENTENCE 2: "I enjoy mysteries that are suspenseful."
MEANING: The only mysteries that I enjoy are suspenseful. The
meaning of Sentence 2 is not the same without the clause
starting with the word "that."
*******************************************************************
Janice Gelb | The only connection Sun has with
janice -dot- gelb -at- eng -dot- sun -dot- com | this message is the return address. http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8018/index.html
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