Sometimes “which” sounds right, other times “that” sounds right. These two pronouns can be difficult to grasp. Is there a way of knowing which one to write? Well, the answer is, yes! Although “which” and “that” are frequently used synonymously, they are not. Today’s blog post is going to be a grammar lesson, that will teach you how to correctly use “which” and “that”.
First off, “that” is a restrictive pronoun. It is used to determine a particular object or objects from a larger set. For example, “The laptop that I bought is black.” In this case, “that” is referring to the black laptop out of all the possible laptops that I could have bought.
However, “which” is a non-restrictive pronoun. It is used to add extra, non-essential information about an object while keeping the main meaning. An example of this is “This website, which is run by me, has lots of interesting blogs on it!” Here, I’m just tossing in a fun fact about my website, but it doesn’t affect the fact the website is run by me.
So, when should you use them? Simple. Use “that” when you need to be specific and “which” when you want to give some extra details. With lots of practice, you will soon find choosing one or the other an easy task.