Prev | Current Page 132 | Next

Bechtel, John Hendricks, 1841-

"Slips of Speech : a Helpful Book for Everyone Who Aspires to Correct the Everyday Errors of Speaking"


"The dog, who was called Rover, went mad." Use which.
What, That
That is applied to persons, animals, and things. What is applied to
things. The antecedent of what should not be expressed. What is both
antecedent and relative.
"All what he saw he described." Say, "What he saw," or "All that he
saw," etc.
Uniform Relatives
When several relative clauses relate to the same antecedent, they
should have the same relative pronoun.
"It was Joseph that was sold into Egypt, who became
_________________________________________________________________
138
governor of the land, and which saved his father and brothers from
famine." Change that and which to who.
Choice of Relatives
Since who and that are both applied to persons, and which and that are
both applied to animals and things, it often becomes a serious
question which relative we shall employ. Much has been written upon
the subject, but the critics still differ in theory and in practice.
The following is probably as simple a statement of the general rule as
can be found:
If the relative clause is of such a nature that it could be introduced
by and he, and she, and it, and they, etc.


Pages:
120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144