In general, use that with restrictive clauses and which with nonrestrictive clauses. Do not use which to refer to persons. Use who instead. That , though generally used to refer to things, may be used to refer to a group or class of people. Fans wondered how an old man who not that or which walked with a limp could play football. The team that scores the most points in this game will win the tournament.
Take a suit that travels well. A suit Take clothes that are easy to wash. Sometimes problems occur when one of the and only one of the are used. Generally, one of the is treated as plural, and only one of the is treated as singular. Our ability to use language is one of the things that set us apart from animals. The antecedent of that is things , not one. Several things set us apart from animals, and language is one of them.
Carmen is the only one of the applicants who has the ability to step into this position. Study Resources. Usage of "That" and "Which" for restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses:. Main Clause and Subordinate Clause. Types of Subordinate Clause. Phrase and Clause - Difference. Phrasal Verb. All Rights Reserved. Restrictive Clause is also called Essential Clause. Restrictive Clause must not be set off by commas in a sentence.
As it is used to specify the noun, it is essential to the meaning of the sentence. If it is taken out of a sentence, the meaning of the sentence would be affected. It does not only give additional information but also identifies the noun. Non-restrictive Clause is also called Non-essential Clause. Non-restrictive Clause must be set off by commas in a sentence.
As it does not specify the noun, it is not essential to the meaning of sentence. As you can see, nonrestrictive clauses are separated from the rest of the sentence by one or two commas; restrictive clauses are not separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. There are a few other interesting usage points when considering whether a clause is restrictive or nonrestrictive.
Clauses that begin with which and refer to the entire main clause are nonrestrictive:. When a restrictive clause begins with a relative pronoun or relative adverb, the pronoun or adverb can often be omitted:.
The reason that he gave wasn't convincing. That was the year when I went to Romania. But this is never possible in nonrestrictive clauses, or in clauses where the pronoun is the subject:. In the two sentences we looked at last time, the first sentence "The old lady who was injured in the accident is now in the hospital" uses a restrictive clause: there many be many old ladies in the hospital, but the one we are talking about now is the old lady who was injured in the accident.
The second sentence "The old lady, who is now in the hospital, was injured in the accident" uses a nonrestrictive clause: the main point of the sentence is that the old lady was injured--that she is in the hospital does not clarify which old lady we are talking about as there may be many old ladies at the hospital, but there is presumably only one old lady who was injured in the accident.
Learner's Dictionary mobile search. Learner's Dictionary. Ask the Editor. Peter Sokolowski , Editor at Large. Editor Kory Stamper takes another look at a recent question. In our last blog post, you will remember that one of our readers asked a question about the difference between these two sentences: The old lady who was injured in the accident is now in the hospital.
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