Paul Cunningham asked for this one. When do you use "that" and when do you use "which". i.e. Do you say, "It's a job that pays well" or "It's a job which pays well"?

My understanding is that "that" is grammatically, and that people tend to use "which" 'cos it sounds a little fancier? I read this somewhere.

I don't know the real grammatical reason off the top of my head. If I have a moment, I'll look it up.

I know I try to use "that" instead of "which". The only time I use "which" in that context is in the below sort of situation:

Example:


What do you think?

Chris Fulstow says he uses 'that' for restrictive clauses and 'which' for non-restrictive. Having no idea about the difference between restrictive and non-restrictive clauses, I looked this up, and it looks like Chris is right on the money.

Example (from here)
Correct Restrictive Use:

Correct Nonrestrictive Use:

These sentences have different meanings as well as different punctuation. In the restrictive sentence, the store honored only those complaints less than 60 days old, but not those over 60 days old. In the nonrestrictive sentence, the store honored all the complaints, all of which were less than 60 days old.
As you can see, there's also a difference in punctuation.

Re my original example, I guess this means "that" is correct. i.e. "It's a job that pays well." If we used "which" (and a comma), it would have changed the meaning: "It's a job, which pays well." This says, basically, "yes, it's a job, and jobs pay well."

That example reminds me of 'which witch is which?'

"It's a job which pays well, and which offers great conditions."

Couldn't you take the second one out? And, I'd change it to 'that'. It sounds rather quite repetitive... 'It's a job that pays well and offers great conditions'

So yes...I have to go with Chris on this one (if it makes you feel any better, I didn't know the difference between restrictive and non-restrictive clauses either).

Yes, you're right. My example was a bad one. But I think you know what I mean. There are times when you need to use the construction, "which blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, and which blah blah blah blah blah". I can't think of any now, but I know they exist.

I think that the word which is a good way to break up a sentence. If your sentence is running a little too long, the incorporation of a comma and the word 'which' would give the reader a little breathing space and let the sentence flow a little better. When the sentence is short and direct, the word 'that' is best utilised.