WHICH or THAT - What's The Difference? - Common Grammar Mistake - Learn With Examples

WHICH or THAT?
Do you get confused when choosing whether to use "which" or "that?" Native speakers often use them interchangeably, but there is a difference.

Let’s look at why in this video!

It comes down to essential relative clauses vs nonessential relative clauses. Not sure what those are? Don't worry! By the end of this video, you will be!

This video is especially useful to improve your writing skills, especially if you are preparing for an English exam, such as IELTS or TOEFL.

There is also a quiz at the end to give you more practice.

Should you put WHICH or THAT in the spaces in the sentences below?

1. The shirt was my favourite color, ______ is blue.
2. The dog ______ has a white stripe always attacks visitors.
3. She loves to watch movies ______ make her cry.

Find out at the end.
Here is a transcript of the video to help you follow along:

0:00 Start
0:08 intro
0:32 Contents
1:17 What are clauses?
2:33 essential and nonessential clauses
3:14 example of essential clause
4:04 example of nonessential clause
4:50 commas in nonessential clause
5:19 simple way to remember the difference between that and which
5:38 more example - that and which
6:38 more examples - that and which
7:14 quiz - 3 questions
8:50 outro

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Partial Transcript (please note - this is an AI transcript and has not been checked)

Which of these sentences is correct? I broke the phone that I bought last week. I broke the phone which I bought last week. In this session, we're going to answer that question and look at when to use that and when to use which correctly. I am Charlie from organic English. I'm here to help you become more fluent in English. Now, if you're confused about which verses that don't feel bad, I get this question a lot and we are going to clear it up. today. We're going to look at the rules. Then we're going to look through plenty of examples to help you understand and to absorb. And there'll be a quiz at the end to test your understanding. So stick around. I broke the phone that I bought last week. I broke the phone, which I bought last week. Now they both sound fine, right? And I and most native speakers would say both, but I broke the phone that I bought last week is grammatically correct. I broke the phone, which I bought last week is not a problem if you're just hanging out with friends. But you will be penalized if you're taking an exam like the IELTS or TOEFL. Now to understand when to use that or which we need to understand clauses now clauses a group of words that contains a subject and a verb that have a relationship. This relationship is important because a clause gives us some information about what the subject is, or is doing. Now a sentence can have just one clause, or it can have multiple clauses. A clause can work as a sentence, but it doesn't have to as long as it contains a subject and a verb that are related. Here's an example to illustrate that every night before I go to bed. I eat bananas every night. Before I go to bed is a clause. It has a subject and a verb. But it doesn't work as a sentence by itself. It's not a complete thought. A bananas. This is also a clause. It has a subject and a verb. This does work as a sentence by itself. It's a complete thought. Now, there are a few different types of clauses in English and they play a variety of roles. But to be able to use which and that correctly, we need to understand two types of clauses essential clauses and non essential clauses. You'll also see essential clauses called defining clauses or restrictive clauses and non essential clauses. You'll see those also called non defining clauses or non restrictive clauses. Now essential clauses give information essential to the meaning of the sentence. Hence the name. non essential clauses don't. Now you might lose interesting details if you remove non essential clauses from a sentence, but the meaning of the sentence wouldn't change I think some examples would help here. So an essential clause. My car that has a flat tire is in the garage. In this sentence, the essential clause is that has a flat tire. Now from this sentence, you understand that I have more than one car and importantly is the one with a flat tire that's in the garage. If you took out the clause that has a flat tire, you'd be left with my cars in the garage. Now you've lost important information. You've lost the fact that I own more than one car and even if you knew about my other cars, you wouldn't know which one was in the garage. (end of transcript)

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[nina]

Hi Charlie, thank you for this lesson, it's really helpful.