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Home » Archives » Spring 2004 (Volume 1 Issue 2) - Training on the Cutting Edge
Spring 2004 / The Merciless Grammarian Spring 2004 / Training
The Merciless Grammarian spews his wrath on nasty problems of grammar, mechanics, and style.
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Drawing by Nathan Baran O Merciless One, I’ve been told that I’m supposed to keep that and which separate. I’m supposed to use that only to specify things (“Where’s the pen that I lent you?”) and which only to add additional information (“The pen, which I bought last week, has run dry”). Can you please help me keep them straight? Nonessentially yours, Hecuba Quisling Dear Hecuba, You seem to be having considerable problems with pens. Should you acquire one, kindly poke it into the yielding midbelly of whoever told you such blasted nonsense. Even I, who have publicly shamed those careless enough to use lay intransitively, must admit that the two words are often used for the same purpose. Clauses that specify a particular thing, called essential or restrictive clauses, can be introduced with either that or which, viz. The nefarious apparatus that I pawned last Tuesday was an heirloom. or The nefarious apparatus which I pawned last Tuesday was an heirloom.