{"id":823,"date":"2012-10-29T14:49:55","date_gmt":"2012-10-29T20:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=823"},"modified":"2020-11-25T10:23:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T16:23:03","slug":"who-vs-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/who-vs-which-vs-that\/who-vs-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Who<\/em> vs. That<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent newsletter, I corrected myself after some readers wrote in saying the word that<\/em> should have been who<\/em> in the sentence “There’s not one mother I know that<\/strong> would allow her child to cross that street alone.” However, it got me thinking more about this topic, so I dug a little deeper into what some of the leading English usage reference books such as The Chicago Manual of Style<\/em>, The Associated Press Stylebook<\/em>, and various dictionaries have to say on the matter. It turns out the majority of these references allow the use of the word that <\/em>to refer to people. While I am not personally a proponent of this usage, I think it\u2019s a good time to revisit the rules for who<\/em> vs. that<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Rule:<\/strong> Who<\/em> refers to people. That<\/em> may refer to people, animals, groups, or things, but who <\/em>is preferred when referring to people.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/strong> Anya is the one who<\/strong> rescued the bird.<\/em>
\nNOTE:<\/strong> While Anya is the one that<\/strong> rescued the bird is also correct, who <\/strong>is preferred.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/strong> Lope is on the team that<\/strong> won first place.<\/em><\/p>\n

Example:<\/strong> She belongs to an organization that<\/strong> specializes in saving endangered species.<\/em>
\nNOTE:<\/strong> While teams and organizations are composed of people, they are considered groups. However, this matter is not always clear-cut. Consider this sentence: \u201cSeveral of the university\u2019s scientists who\/that<\/strong> favored the new policy attended the meeting.\u201d Which is correct, who<\/strong> or that<\/strong>? Does \u201cuniversity\u2019s scientists\u201d seem more like individual people than a group? In cases like this, you may use your own judgment.<\/p>\n

You may be asking whether there are any rules guiding when to use the word that<\/em> and when to use the word which<\/em>. The answer is yes. That<\/em> introduces essential clauses and which <\/em>introduces nonessential clauses. This topic is explored more thoroughly in the grammar tip entitled “That vs. Which.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz<\/strong>
\n1. Was it Marguerite who\/that organized the surprise party for Johann?
\n2. Kepler is the scientist who\/that proposed the laws of planetary motion.
\n3. I do not want to go on any amusement park rides who\/that involve sudden drops.
\n4. Oliver is the president of the association who\/that nurses injured wild animals back to health.
\n5. Most of the members of the board who\/that voted against the motion to change the bylaws were present at the meeting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong>
\n1. Was it Marguerite who<\/strong> organized the surprise party for Johann? (that<\/strong> is also acceptable.)
\n2. Kepler is the scientist who<\/strong> proposed the laws of planetary motion. (that<\/strong> is also acceptable.)
\n3. I do not want to go on any amusement park rides that<\/strong> involve sudden drops.
\n4. Oliver is the president of the association that<\/strong> nurses injured wild animals back to health.
\n5. Most of the members of the board who<\/strong> voted against the motion to change the bylaws were present at the meeting. (that<\/strong>\u00a0is also acceptable.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent newsletter, I corrected myself after some readers wrote in saying the word that should have been who in the sentence “There’s not one mother I know that would allow her child to cross that street alone.” However, it got me thinking more about this topic, so I dug a little deeper into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-who-vs-which-vs-that"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}