That vs Which Video Lecture - Learn and Master Business Writing - Communication

in this segment we're going to talk
about how to use that and which let's
talk about the difference between using
that and which
so the key thing that you want to
remember when using that and which is
that we use that for information that is
essential to the sentence and we use
which for information that is non
essential to the sentence but a really
important thing to remember is that
essential does not mean important to the
sentence it doesn't mean that the detail
is unique or important it rather means
this is going to be the definition I'm
going to give you a Vicente seneschal in
other words means
so we're going to define essential as
necessary to differentiate between like
things well what do we mean by this let
me give you an example
okay so you see a sentence and it says
please bring the Gutenberg Bible that or
which is on the table this is an easy
sentence there is only one possible use
for a relative pronoun here there's only
one pronoun that will work and that
pronoun have you guessed is which I
cannot use the pronoun that in this
sentence why is that remember that I
said that that we use when the
information is essential to the sentence
or in other words necessary to
differentiate between like things and we
use which when the information is
non-essential or not necessary to
differentiate between light things well
here's the scenario I have over here on
the table the Gutenberg Bible there is
only one Gutenberg Bible so it's only
possible there there can be one
Gutenberg Bible it's not like there can
be ten sitting on the table
so I don't have to differentiate which
one of the ten different Gutenberg
Bibles I want you to bring I want you to
bring just the one and only Gutenberg
Bible which is on the table so this is
on the table is not necessary
information for me to understand which
Gutenberg Bible I want you to bring so
let me restructure the sentence and
we'll look at it again okay notice what
happens when I make this change to the
sentence please bring the book that or
which is on the table well now we've
totally changed the parameters in fact
odds are there are multiple books that
could be around my house and in fact
this information now is on the table is
necessary in order to differentiate the
book that I want you to bring between
other like things or additional books so
because you need to know
this information in order to bring the
book or know which book I'm talking
about this information right here that
comes after my relative pronoun is
essential to understand which thing or
which book I'm talking about so I need
to use that please bring the book that
is on the table okay I'm gonna put up
another sentence to help illustrate this
okay so in this sentence I want the
umbrella I'm heading out of the house
I'm off to my business meeting and I say
to my roommate
I want the umbrella that or which is on
the table
well I the odds are that they're
multiple umbrellas that there could be
even two potentially umbrellas because
umbrella is a pretty generic term so
this information here this detailed
information is necessary in order to
differentiate this umbrella for other
from other potential like umbrellas so
in this case I must use the word that I
want the umbrella that is from Target
okay so in other words the more general
the item the more likely it is that
you're going to need this information to
differentiate it between other like
things but watch what happens when I put
the detailed information before the
items so if I give more detail about the
item it becomes less necessary to
differentiate it
okay now in this case I've actually
given you already qualifier information
I've made my thing more unique I want
the pink striped umbrella that or which
is from targets well the odds are there
aren't too many pink striped umbrellas
so this information from target becomes
non-essential err less necessary in
order to let me know which umbrella I'm
talking about so in this case I'm going
to put in the word which I want the pink
striped umbrella which is from Target so
remember if the information that comes
after the things that I'm modifying is
it's necessary to differentiate that
thing from other like things that makes
it essential and I want to use that
otherwise if this information is not
necessary to identify this item then
it's not essential and I can use the
word which now you might notice that
with my red marker I added something to
my sentence every time I use the word
which I added a comma and that's because
when I use non-essential information in
this case the pro the relative pronoun
which I need to use in fact I must use a
comment if however I change my sentence
back to I want the umbrella that is from
Target no comma in fact you never I love
it when we can use an ever with grammar
you never use a comma when you're using
that as a relative pronoun for essential
information so no comment
use a which then you do have a comment