PUNCTUATION

This isn’t necessarily punctuation, but I still think it can be helpful.

That vs. Which.

I was trying to find something that was more specific to the AP style that I could share. I mean it’s not super hard to find parts of grammar that are hard or weird because I’m awful at it, and for that reason, I’m taking this class. But I was looking at the differences between the words “that” and “which.” A lot of people use them interchangeably, and I’m included in that group, because they are very similar.

Apparently the biggest differences between them is when you use them. They aren’t words like “accept” and “except” that sound the same but mean different things, because “that” and “which” both refer to the main topic of which someone is speaking, or inanimate objects/ animals that don’t have names.

The word “that” is used for essential clauses that are important to the meaning of the sentence.

An essential clause is a “relative clause” that limits a general, ambiguous noun. So the Essential clause tells the reader “which” one of many the writer means.

An example of that could be: I remember the day that I met my future wife.

We use the word “which” for relative clauses where the pronoun isn’t quite as necessary or important.

An example of that could be: The team, which won the championship last year, beings their 2012 season next month.

This is definitely something that I’m still trying to grasp because of how similar these two words are, but having the definition and some examples can definitely help in the future for those who have difficulties with the concept.