Sentence Correction

Dear Experts,

"That" is usually refers to the main subject, whereas "which" refers to the one preceding, even the clause is in a prepositional phrase.

Is my thought process true. Please validate it.

Ex:1 A south American bird that forages for winged termites and other small insects while swinging upside down from the foliage of tall trees, the graveterio belongs to the ovenbird family, a group of New World tropical birds that includes more than 230 species and that are represented in virtually every kind of habitat.

Here is how I have seen that vs which used in GMAT sentences.

That is a restrictive clause; It is critical to our understanding of the noun in the sentence. If you take out the That ... , the meaning of the sentence would change.

1)Phanikpk loves cars that are from Germany;

2)Phanikpk loves cars.

As you can see, 2 changes the meaning of the sentence because you might not love American cars.

Which is non restrictive; It provides additional information without which our understanding of the noun in question wouldn't be affected.

1)I live by a lake, which is about 10 feet from my backyard.

2) I live by a lake.

I am just trying to tell you I live by a lake, which, by the way, happens to be 10 feet from my backyard.

Let's say there are six television sets in a row at Walmart in this order(from left to right): Samsung(1), Vizio(2), Samsung(3), Vizio(4), Vizio(5), Samsung(6).

If I sent you the store and said, "Please, purchase the second television from your left, which is a Vizio.". Which television would your purchase?

What if I said, "Purchase the second television from your left, that is a Vizio." Which television would you purchase?

Try to learn modifiers this way because you are forced to think about the meaning of a sentence; Understanding the meaning is very important, in my experience, to correctly editing a sentence.

Stay away from technical definitions and formulaic thinking as much as you can, especially on this problem type.

Can you please elaborate the point(s) on which you are seeking clarity in the Example you posted.

TREATISE ON THAT VS WHICH

Usage of That VS Which


Determining the correct relative pronoun:

When information is critical to the understanding of the main clause, use THAT as the appropriate relative pronoun and do not set the information off by commas. The clause containing the pronoun and not set off by commas is referred to as a restrictive clause.
(Restrictive)-- That

"¢ Russian generals have delivered a message that is difficult to ignore.
o THAT relates back to the noun MESSAGE and is necessary for the reader to know what MESSAGE the sentence is about.


"¢ Clinton will continue to hammer out a historic Mideast pact that bears his stamp.
o THAT relates back to the noun PACT and is necessary for the reader to know what PACTthe sentence is about.

"¢ There is another factor that obviously boosts the reputation of both of these men.
o THAT relates back to the noun FACTOR and is necessary for the reader to know what FACTOR the sentence is about.

When information is NOT critical to the understanding of the main clause, use WHICH as the appropriate relative pronoun and set the information off by commas. The clause set off by commas is referred to as a nonrestrictive dependent clause.
(Nonrestrictive)-- Which

Nonrestrictive relative pronouns describe, add incidental detail or begin new/separate ideas. There is usually a comma separating the nonrestrictive clause from the main/independent clause

"¢ The toughest intramural fight of all for Clinton was the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he undertook a full year before the 1994 election.

o WHICH relates back to the noun AGREEMENT and the information following it is not necessary for the reader to know what AGREEMENT the sentence is about.

"¢ Clinton refused to head toward the center on affirmative action and abortion, which are the two most sacred issues to the traditional liberal wing of the party.

o WHICH relates back to the noun AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND ABORTION and the information following it is not necessary for the reader to know what AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND ABORTION the sentence is about.


while it is true that relative pronouns refer back to nearest nouns - there is a caveat - one must understand the intended meaning of the sentence . I mean by just looking at the form we can not say if it is relative pronoun. here is an example of it

Chinese cook claim that snake meat keeps you warm in winter.

Here that is not a relative pronoun . That does not replace claim in the above metioned sentence rather that introduces a subordinate clause .

That acts as a subordinate clause giving answer to what do Chinese cook claim.

this will be even more clear if you look into the derivational aspect of this sentence

(1) Chinese cook Claim this.
(2) Snake meat keeps you warm in winter.

when i combine these above two sentence and write them into one sentence i can write :

Chinese cook claim that snake meat keeps you warm in winter.

in a nutshell understanding the meaning of the sentence is critical to determine when that introduces a subordinate clause when it acts as a relative pronoun .

Just to add a qn to this concept.

The development of a new jumbo rocket that is expected to carry the United States into its next
phase of space exploration will be able to deliver a heavier load of instruments into orbit than the space shuttle and at a lower cost.
(A) The development of a new jumbo rocket that is expected to carry the United States into its
next phase of space exploration will be able to deliver a heavier load of instruments into
orbit than the space shuttle and at a lower cost.
(B) The development of a new jumbo rocket is expected to carry the United States into its
next phase of space exploration and be able to deliver a heavier load of instruments into orbit at a lower cost than the space shuttle.
(C) The new development of a jumbo rocket, which is expected to carry the United States into its
next phase of space exploration, will be able to deliver a heavier load of instruments into orbit at a lower cost than the space shuttle.
(D) A newly developed jumbo rocket, which is expected to carry the United States into its next phase of space exploration, will be able to deliver a heavier load of instruments into orbit than the space shuttle can, and at a lower cost.
(E) A newly developed jumbo rocket, which is expected to carry the United States into its next phase of space exploration, will be able to deliver a heavier load of instruments into orbit than the space shuttle and to cost less.

OA is D

that is actually a very versatile world in English language. that has the following three completely completely different usages.

i) As a conjunction: In this capacity, that is used to connect two clauses. For example:

Jack said that he would play in the match.

In this case, that is used to connect the clauses: Jack said and he would play in the match.

ii) As a demonstrative pronoun. For example:

That car is mine.

In this case that is used as a demonstrative pronoun, referencing/pointing to the car.

iii) As a relative pronoun. For example:

The car that is parked in the basement is mine.

In this case, that is used to refer to the noun car. This usage of that is most prominently tested on GMAT.

The usage of that as a restrictive pronoun and which as a non-restrictive pronoun is almost never tested on GMAT.

However the main difference on which GMAT is likely to test, is how that and which can modify different entities, when used as relative pronouns. To summarize, which will always modify the nearest grammatically eligible word, while that can actually modify the word proceeding it or group of words preceding it.

For example, if the intent is to depict that James likes red tomatoes and red apples, following would not be correct:

James likes tomatoes and apples, which are red.
- which would only modify apples

The correct sentence would be:

James likes tomatoes and apples that are red.
- that would modify tomatoes and apples

p.s. Our book SC Nirvana discusses differences between which and that, their application and examples in significant detail. If you can PM you email, I can send you the corresponding section.