“Any car which fails inspection is not safe to drive!”
“The lasagna, that contained only vegetables, cheese and noodles, looked delicious.”
“This is the house which Jack built.”
To the untrained eye and ear, these sentences may sound perfectly correct. Admittedly, until a few weeks ago, they would have sounded correct even to me. Then I saw the light.
When the general public hears the word “pronoun,” it automatically thinks “he, she, it” or their variants. The startling truth is that there are actually seven (very) different types of pronouns: personal, interrogative, relative, demonstrative, indefinite, reflexive, and intensive. Luckily, we only have to deal with one to master “that” and “which."
“That” and “which” are relative pronouns. This means that they are used in the beginning of a subordinate clause to give some more specific information about the main clause. Others include “who,” “whom,” “what,” “when,” and “whose” when they aren’t used in question format (in that situation, they are interrogative). Here are some examples:
àThat girl is the one whose pet chinchilla is loose.
àI hope I have a machine gun when the zombies take over Elon.
àI can’t help what I say most of the time.
The second and final thing you need to understand is the difference between an essential and nonessential clause. This idea is a bit more abstract, but I’ll try to make it simple. If the sentence would still work without the clause, it is nonessential; you don’t NEED it to make the sentence make sense. However, if the sentence’s meaning would be changed without the clause, it is essential. At least the grammar gods thought to make the names make sense, eh?
“That” is used when the clause is essential and “which” is used in nonessential situations. Some examples:
àThe mall, which I normally enjoy immensely, was crowded and stressful today!
àThe car that ran the red light was sideswiped.
Okay! Here we go. See what you can do.
àThe Taj Mahal, _______ was built as a romantic gesture to his wife by a Mogul emperor, is one of India’s greatest tourist attractions.
The correct answer is “which.” If you take out what’s between the commas (the clause introduced by the relative pronoun), the sentence would still make sense. There is only one Taj Mahal, and the bit about it being a romantic gesture doesn’t change that. The information is nonessential.
àThe puppy _______ I bought is a collie.
If you guessed “that,” you’re right! This is essential because we’re talking about the puppy that the speaker bought as opposed to the other puppies in the store. Don’t worry; this will make more sense in context. Check this out: “The puppy that I bought is a collie. The puppy that Sarah bought is a shepherd.” See? Now the information really IS essential for making sure the reader/listener knows which of the puppies you’re talking about.
Wrong: “The bed, that I sleep on, is lumpy.”
Right: “The bed that I sleep on is lumpy.”
And likewise:
Wrong: “My alarm clock which is on the floor in pieces woke me up today.”
Right: “My alarm clock, which is on the floor in pieces, woke me up today.”
A second little tip is to covertly and temporarily take out the pronoun in your head. If the sentence still sounds correct to your ear without the single pronoun, you’ve probably got an essential clause requiring “that.”
“My getaway van, which is brown and green, is sitting in North parking lot.”
“My getaway van, is brown and green, is sitting in North parking lot.”
Not so much, right?
“The child I can’t stand is throwing dolls at my leg.”
That’s better!
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