What\u2019s the difference between \u2018who\u2019 and \u2018that\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s a good question, and here\u2019s a rule for you: use \u2018who\u2019 when you are talking about people, and \u2018that\u2019 when you are talking about things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s the end of the lesson!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Except it isn\u2019t, because things are a little more complicated than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because \u2018that\u2019 can actually represent people too, and has been used in this way by a host of famous writers down the years. So, if your high school English teacher told you to live by the rule as mentioned above, then he or she was actually a little wide of the mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Who\u2019 is a relative pronoun, as is \u2018which\u2019. It is definitely correct to say that \u2018who\u2019 is for when you are talking about people, and \u2018which\u2019 is for when you are talking about things. This rule is non-negotiable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, \u2018that\u2019 is an acceptable alternative as a relative pronoun when using both \u2018who\u2019 and \u2018which\u2019. However, \u2018that\u2019 can only be used as a defining relative pronoun, and in a defining relative clause. It cannot be used as a non-defining relative pronoun in a non-defining relative clause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are you confused yet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t be, because this can be explained quite simply so you never need to make this mistake again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defining relative pronouns are used in defining relative clauses. Defining relative clauses are used when the subject or object needs to be defined in order to be identified. Here is an example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018He is the man.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Now, the natural question this raises is, \u2018who?\u2019, because without defining this man, we have no idea who is being referenced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018He is the man who lives next to my sister.\u2019<\/p><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Now we can identify him (he\u2019s the man who lives next to my sister).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s another example using \u2018which\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018This is the mug.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
But which mug are we talking about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018This is the mug which I use for all my hot drinks.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Now we know!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These examples both include what are called \u2018defining relative clauses\u2019. In both of these examples, \u2018who\u2019 and \u2018which\u2019 can be replaced with \u2018that\u2019, because the pronoun is defining. So:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018He is the man that lives next to my sister.\u2019<\/p>
\u2018This is the mug that I use for all my hot drinks.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
So, to answer the original question, there is no difference between \u2018who\u2019 and \u2018that\u2019 when the relative pronoun is defining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n
Non-defining relative clauses<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
But relative clauses are not only used to define something. They can also be used to add information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this case, \u2018who\u2019 and \u2018which\u2019 are still distinguished by whether they are adding information about a person or a thing.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018My brother, who is a keen runner, lives a healthy lifestyle.\u2019<\/p>
\u2018My car, which is a Ford, is red.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Now, the commas are a bit of a giveaway. That\u2019s because everything included inside those commas is simply additional information that (which) is not required to define the subject of the sentence. If you removed those clauses, the sentences would still make sense:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018My brother lives a healthy lifestyle.\u2019<\/p>
\u2018My car is red.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
It is also important to remember that the words \u2018who\u2019 and \u2018which\u2019, in the original non-defining relative clause examples, cannot be replaced with \u2018that\u2019. So:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018My brother, that who is a keen runner, lives a healthy lifestyle.\u2019<\/p>
\u2018My car, that which is a Ford, is red.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
This simply doesn\u2019t work, and the standard \u2018who\u2019 and \u2018which\u2019 must be used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, to answer the original question once again (what is the difference between \u2018who\u2019 and \u2018that\u2019?) the answer is that \u2018who\u2019 is for when you are talking about people, and \u2018that\u2019 is nothing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, it really all comes down to whether it\u2019s a defining relative pronoun, or not!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What\u2019s the difference between \u2018who\u2019 and \u2018that\u2019? That\u2019s a good question, and here\u2019s a rule for you: use \u2018who\u2019 when you are talking about people, and \u2018that\u2019 when you are talking about things. And that\u2019s the end of the lesson! Except it isn\u2019t, because things are a little more complicated than that. Because \u2018that\u2019 can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[15,503,530,534,581,531],"class_list":["post-1416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-grammar","tag-grammar-checking","tag-grammar-errors","tag-grammar-mistakes","tag-grammar-rules","tag-grammatical-errors"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Who Vs That: A Common Grammar Mistake - Linguix Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who Vs That: A Common Grammar Mistake\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What\u2019s the difference between \u2018who\u2019 and \u2018that\u2019? That\u2019s a good question, and here\u2019s a rule for you: use \u2018who\u2019 when you are talking about people, and \u2018that\u2019 when you are talking about things. And that\u2019s the end of the lesson! Except it isn\u2019t, because things are a little more complicated than that. Because \u2018that\u2019 can […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Linguix Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-25T07:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-16T16:28:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/58.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Samantha Ruff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Samantha Ruff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/\",\"name\":\"Who Vs That: A Common Grammar Mistake - Linguix Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/58.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-25T07:41:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-16T16:28:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ac57263f1721a7acff5ec232620d844c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/58.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/58.png\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Who Vs That: A Common Grammar Mistake\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Linguix Blog\",\"description\":\"Writing about using technology to create content and build effective communications.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ac57263f1721a7acff5ec232620d844c\",\"name\":\"Samantha Ruff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/72856d95764d7d89e74d94dd9f35a391?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/72856d95764d7d89e74d94dd9f35a391?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Samantha Ruff\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/author\/samantha\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Who Vs That: A Common Grammar Mistake - Linguix Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Who Vs That: A Common Grammar Mistake","og_description":"What\u2019s the difference between \u2018who\u2019 and \u2018that\u2019? That\u2019s a good question, and here\u2019s a rule for you: use \u2018who\u2019 when you are talking about people, and \u2018that\u2019 when you are talking about things. And that\u2019s the end of the lesson! Except it isn\u2019t, because things are a little more complicated than that. Because \u2018that\u2019 can […]","og_url":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/","og_site_name":"Linguix Blog","article_published_time":"2020-03-25T07:41:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-05-16T16:28:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/58.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Samantha Ruff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Samantha Ruff","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/","url":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/","name":"Who Vs That: A Common Grammar Mistake - Linguix Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/58.png","datePublished":"2020-03-25T07:41:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-05-16T16:28:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ac57263f1721a7acff5ec232620d844c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/58.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/58.png","width":1024,"height":683},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/who-vs-that-a-common-grammar-mistake\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Who Vs That: A Common Grammar Mistake"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/","name":"Linguix Blog","description":"Writing about using technology to create content and build effective communications.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ac57263f1721a7acff5ec232620d844c","name":"Samantha Ruff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/72856d95764d7d89e74d94dd9f35a391?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/72856d95764d7d89e74d94dd9f35a391?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","caption":"Samantha Ruff"},"url":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/author\/samantha\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1416"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1864,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions\/1864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}