That or which?

[sophie_1003]

What are the rules surrounding the use of these two words; for example; which is correct-- I decided to read the book which is about dogs
or
- I decided to read the book that is about dogs?

[MarkRae]

http://www.grammarboo.../grammar/whoVwhVt.asp

[sophie_1003]

Thanks, I think! I'm immediately terrified by the mention of clauses as I had to revise them so much for an exam in the first year of uni but think I understand!

[MarkRae]

You're welcome, Prune... ;-)

[sophie_1003]

Nooo, knew I shouldn't have mentioned it!

[MarkRae]

Too late, too late, will be the cry...

[Maydup]

I know its tricky to work out when to use" that or which", but ts often better to leave the word out

ie I've decided to read the book about dogs.

[sophie_1003]

Are you quoting from the hymn or Lock Stock Mark? (Isn't google fantastic lol!)
Thats what I'd usually do maidup; I never use affect/effect as I still can't get my head round which one to use when so always use 'influence' instead!

[sophie_1003]

**That's

[sophie_1003]

The sentence which/that is troubling me at the moment is-- "...the first year of school, that includes children learning to read in a more formal way..."

[MarkRae]

The hymn, Sophie (see, I didn't call you Prune this time).

http://grammartips.homestead.com/affect.html

[sophie_1003]

Ta Mark, am on my dissertation now and have got through the past 3 years pretty well just going with 'influence' so am going to stick with what I know lol!

[jno]

in theory you'd use a comma before 'which'.

I read a book that was about dogs.

I read a book, which was about dogs.

Does that make it any clearer?

[MarkRae]

Not a bad plan, Sophie, though that article explained it pretty well.

I remember it from the phrase "the domino effect" which reminds me that 'effect' is usually a noun and therefore 'affect' is usually a verb.

It then becomes easy to fill in the blanks E.g. "This post has not had a strong enough EFFECT on Sophie to AFFECT her writing style."

[MarkRae]

Commas have nothing to do with it, jno.

Which of these is correct?

1) That's the book which I was reading yesterday.
2) That's the book, which I was reading yesterday.

[jno]

(2), though it sounds clumsy.

The first sounds better as 'That's the book that I was reading yesterday.' Or you could omit the second 'that'. But you can't omit 'which'.

(Well, people can and do, but rules in English are fairly flexible.)

[sophie_1003]

I'm sure it did Mark but with 1000 words left to go I've just had enough lol, thanks for the help though!

[MarkRae]

No, the first one is correct because 'which' is being used as a conjunction.

If it were being used as a relative pronoun, then it would indeed require a comma.

[sophie_1003]

I'm confused again now!

[scotman]

Thanks Mark, another site bookmarked.

[swedeheart]

To my foreigner ears both your sentences could be correct, MarkRae, but they would mean slightly different things:

1) That's the book which I was reading yesterday = that's the one.
2) That's the book, which I was reading yesterday = that's the book, and BTW I was reading it yesterday.

Is that wrong?

Great link BTW, made it clearer to me. (Or at least I think so;)