That or which? UK or US usage?

The United Nations style allows both UK and US grammar usage. However, editors may have their own ideas about what is acceptable or not.

Consistency is the most important point.

Summary of rules

1. Use that to introduce information essential to meaning (a defining or restrictive clause). Don’t use a comma before that.

The house that my parents built needs repairs.

Which house? The one that my parents built. No commas.

2. Use which instead of that to introduce additional, optional information (a non-defining or non-restrictive clause). Use commas.

• My parents’ house, which they built last year, needs repairs.

We already know which house: My parents’ house. The which clause provides optional information.

3. Also use which instead of that to refer to an entire clause.

• The cinema is showing the film in two rooms, which is confusing. But one is the French version and the other the English one.

Which refers to the entire clause that precedes it (non-restrictive usage).

4. While that introduces only restrictive clauses essential to meaning, which can be used to introduce both restrictive and non-restrictive clauses, particularly in British usage.

• Restrictive: The house that/which my parents built needs repairs.
• Non-restrictive: My parent’s house, which they built last year, needs repairs.

Test yourself. Identify which rule by number each example follows from today’s US and UK press.

1. Diplomats from around the Mideast convened in Pakistan on Sunday for talks aimed at ending the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran that showed no signs of abating as it entered its second month.
2. Pakistan, which has friendly relations with Iran and the United States, today hosted diplomats from across the Middle East as it attempted to mediate a potential end to the war.
3. But she said the attack also left her with a brain injury and subsequent seizures which led to her losing her business, her ability to drive and her confidence.
4. She said this causes the brain to stop sending signals to the body, which has resulted in her having seizures.
5. A woman has died following a crash that killed a male motorcyclist in Worcestershire last week.
6. She was a pillion passenger on a motorbike which collided with a car on Tunnel Hill in Worcester on 19 March.

Answer key

1 = 1

2 = 2

3 = 4

4 = 3

5 = 1

6 = 4

Author: Carol Waites

Presentation/editing by Christina O’Shaughnessy 
https://worldwidewriting.org/

________________________________________________
Carol Waites (PhD)
Email: carolswritingtips@gmail.com
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Carol’s memoir of her times at the United Nations, Behind the Flags, is available on Amazon and lulu.com

ISBN 9783952632703 Behind the Flags Amazon
9783952632710 Behind the Flags Black and White Version Amazon (Australia and Japan)
9783952632727 Behind the Flags lulu.com

It is also available for sale at Payot and in the UN bookshop at the Pregny entry in Geneva.