Friday, August 19, 2011

Grammar Brigade: That. Yes, That.

To each which is a college professor telling you to use that.  Is it true?  Is that the cure-all for whiches?  Just consider:

Which cat do you prefer? =>  That cat do you prefer?

I told my mother the dress she wore made her butt look big, which got me in trouble. =>  I told my mother the dress she wore made her butt look big, that got me in trouble.

The tulips, some of which were red, looked lovely. =>  The tulips, some of that were red, looked lovely.
Houston, we have a problem.

That should be used only in restrictive clauses, after the noun is modified by a superlative adjective, after counting words (such as seven or forty-five), and after the following pronouns:

{all, any, anything, every, everything, few, little, many, much, nothing, none, some, something}

Also, that should never be used to represent people.  Use who or whom instead.

All the zebras got into the clown car, including twelve zebras that belonged to the Evil League of Evil.
In a side note... "of which" may be used in place of "that" post-number concepts.  For example: All the zebras got into the clown car, twelve of which belonged to the Evil League of Evil.

Any explanations of how the zebras earned their invitations from Bad Horse into the Evil League of Evil?  Oh, and bonus points if you know from which show "Evil League of Evil" comes.

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