Guest  +  20463 Tue, 27 Jan 04 07:55 AM My question concerns the use of “which”, when not preceded by a comma. I have recently encountered objections to sentences such as: "This is the house which Jack built." I have seen it alleged that such a sentence (containing no comma after "house") can only correctly be written as: "This is the house that Jack built." I have no objection to the sentence "This is the house that Jack built." Is there anything grammatically incorrect about "This is the house which Jack built." (I realise that the latter form is not normally used in the USA but I believe it is correct in the UK.) Please advise. Thanks. Guest Commas

	buggah  +  20480 Tue, 27 Jan 04 12:16 PM 'That' is restrictive, that is, it tells you a necessary piece of information about its antecedent: - This is the house that Jack built. While 'which' is non-restrictive. - I live in that house, which Jack built. buggah Joined on Sat, Jan 24 2004 Brazil Full Member 106 "Do not try to bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth."

	suzi  +  20553 Tue, 27 Jan 04 07:04 PM this is something the grammar checker on Microsoft Word always stresses over in my writing - I IGNORE the dictatorial Yanqui machine and use things the way I want to - apparently Americans get taught this rule at school, but we don't in the UK! suzi Joined on Wed, Jan 7 2004 Full Member 465 Grammar

	suzi  +  20568 Tue, 27 Jan 04 09:13 PM LOL no offence intended! in fact - I have posted this question several times myself, on a linguists' board, and was ignored. I was prompted to ask because of Microsoft word's grammar check - presumably they ignored me because it is so common-place to US-writers ; the "experts" did not believe my problem! suzi Grammar, Grammar Check