1. Neha

    Neha Beyond Infinity. Contributor

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    That and which

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by Neha, Mar 19, 2009.

    I've always been confused over how these work.

    like, should it be,

    They wrote a song that was a hit.

    or

    They wrote a song which was a hit.

    And are there any specific rules, strictly referring to the usage of which should be used when? Somehow, our language books never quite specified that.
     
  2. Neha

    Neha Beyond Infinity. Contributor

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    Thanks, I really appreciate that. I lose many marks because of this, and it gets frustrating.
     
  3. Neha

    Neha Beyond Infinity. Contributor

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    oh, right got it, at least I think so, I think I'll go do some exercises on that now.

    Thanks a lot for that!
     
  4. architectus

    architectus Banned

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    I try to stay away from that as much as possible. It is usually easy to avoid.

    They wrote a successful song.
    They wrote a hit song.

    In the examples you gave, either is correct, but there should be a comma before which.

    They wrote a song that was a hit, stresses that it was a hit.
    They wrote a song, which was a hit. The main idea is just that they wrote a song. The after thought is, and it just happened to be a hit.

    So I guess in this case it depends what you are going for.

    Here is another article on the subject, which I like.
     
  5. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    check such stuff out here:

    http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/t.html

     
  6. Neha

    Neha Beyond Infinity. Contributor

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    Ok, that cleared up the last remaining problems I had. Thanks for that Mammamaia.

    And Architectus, actually I manage to avoid usind that and which if I don't know when to use what in daily life, but for the exams we have to be tense-specific, like especially in compounded statements, so I needed to clear that up.
    But, thanks for your input.
     

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