The place of determiners 'that' and 'which' in a sentence

To be ‘at a crossroads’ defines a moment of confusion, indecision or turning point. There are certain words in the English language that lead us to situations similar to those that individuals at a crossroads find themselves in. Interestingly, many of those adept in the English language get them wrong from time to time. Such words include ‘that’ and ‘which’.

Note that while ‘crossroads’ appears to be in the plural form, the determiner ‘a’ precedes it. As an idiomatic expression, there is no variation to the word ‘crossroads’ and that the sentence construction determines whether it takes the singular or plural form. For example, “John (a Christian) was at a crossroads regarding his wedding to Fatuma (a Muslim)”.

Those with an understanding of Islamic faith state that it is required of the man to change from ‘Christianity’ to professing the ‘Islamic faith’ if he were to marry a true Muslim. Such would present a predicament for John; to abandon his faith in the quest to get a wife or stick to his faith and lose his would-be wife. Such is a crossroads situation.

Similarly, one could say: “Mainstream media houses are at a crossroads; to publish or not to publish names of suspected individuals behind the sugar scam”. If the names, even where suspicion is strong, are published without sufficient proof, the risk of being hit with libel suits increases exponentially. If the media fails to publish the names, it takes a lot of flak from a public that believes the media is either complicit or incompetent to unearth the truth.

The determiners

That said, to write: “The law stops the media from publishing unproven information, which is good” and “The law stops the media from publishing unproven information that is good”, conveys totally different meanings.

The wording in the two sentences, except for the determiners ‘that’ and ‘which’, remain the same, yet one would be left wondering what is good in the first sentence. Is it the law that is good, or is it stopping the publication of the unproven information that is good? No such ambiguity exists in the second sentence. 

Sometimes ‘that’ and ‘which’ are used interchangeably, especially if the commas that necessitate using ‘which’, are removed. The following sentences help to illustrate this; "The lion that mauled the tourist had a big mane” and “The lion which mauled the tourist had a big mane” (this sounds like bad form). Both sentences refer to several lions, the distinguishing feature here being the ‘big mane’.

Remember, a sentence is any group of words that express a complete thought. Where a sentence is to be broken into clauses for one to insert, say, a parenthesis, the appropriate word to attach to it is ‘which’. Where the sentence flows without the need to break it using a comma, the appropriate word is ‘that’.

Nothing changes

At times, ‘that’ (a subordinating conjunction), is a redundant phrase that can be avoided in sentences. For example: “The poisonous sugar that everyone is talking about is quite scary”. If you remove ‘that’, nothing changes. Thus, the clearest difference between ‘that’ and ‘which’ in a sentence is; while the former ‘defines’, the latter gives ‘additional information’ within a clause.

While it is acceptable to omit the word ‘that’ in most sentences, this should be done with care. Sometimes, it is necessary to use the word in a sentence to make it more concise. As earlier discussed, while using common verbs like ‘know’, ‘say’, ‘that’, ‘think’, you can safely omit using “that’. However, if one was to use the verb ‘whisper’ in a sentence, it calls for the accompaniment of the subordinating conjunction ‘that’.

Also, if one writes; “the government confirmed that there was mercury in the sugar” and “the government confirmed there was mercury in the sugar”, there is a subtle difference. The first sentence takes on the correct form; it is specific to a given occurrence. Were the word ‘confirmed’ to be replaced by the verb ‘said’, there would be no need for ‘that’.

The employment of the verb ‘whisper’ in a sentence makes this clear: “He whispered to the waitress he wanted another drink” sounds a little awkward. “He whispered to the waitress that he wanted another drink” sounds better. So, even as you seek to avoid redundant phrases or unnecessary words, be careful not to make your sentences bland, uninviting from economy of words.

Mr Chagema is a correspondent at The [email protected]