Which vs That with Example Sentences

This ultimate guide gives you a detailed look at differences and examples of which vs that, and gives you some important rules for how and when to correctly use them in sentences.

Everyone uses ‘which’ and ‘that’ every day for daily communication. But we tend to take these words for granted and just because these words are common it doesn’t mean they’re easy to use. To be very precise the clauses cause a lot of confusion, but we have found an easy way to remember which one to choose and where they should be used appropriately.

3 Important Rules to Remember where to use ‘that’ and ‘which’

• Always make sure you use ‘that’ in a defining clause.
• Use ‘which’ in non-defining clauses.
• Keep in mind, ‘which’ is a word that can be discarded when it is not essential to use in a sentence. If you wish to remove the clause without destroying the meaning of the sentence, you can use ‘which’.

Now, let’s see what the basic difference between the usage of ‘which’ and ‘that’.

Which vs. That: What’s the Difference?

To understand the rule of English grammar as when to use ‘that’ or ‘which’, it’s very important to understand clauses. So, by definition, a clause (also called an essential clause or a restrictive clause) gives information essential to the meaning of the sentence. The word ‘That’ is always used in defining clauses. Let’s understand better with an example:

My car that has a broken seat is in the backyard.

In the above sentence, you can get the clarity that the speaker has at least one other car. The car he’s talking about is distinguished from his other car by its broken seat. If here you try to remove the clause “that has a broken seat,” you would lose all the implication that he owns more than one bicycle, and even if you somehow knew about the other cars, you wouldn’t know which one was in the garage.

Sentence Examples using “That”

Let’s see some more examples using ‘that’ :

1. The stick that I threw hit the bleachers.
2. My dirt cycle that is green goes really fast.
3. It was her that told me.
4. Look at that waterfall.
5. I will do that job.
6. I am annoyed with the dog that keeps barking.

With this understanding, now we can move over to the word ‘which’.

‘Which’ is a word that introduces non-defining clauses. Unlike the defining clauses, a non-defining clause does not limit the meaning of the sentence. You may sometimes lose interesting details if you remove them, but the meaning of the sentence wouldn’t change.

Sentence Examples using “which”

Let’s see the same example with the usage of the word ‘which’.

• My car, which has a broken seat, is in the backyard.

Few more examples just to give you a clear picture of how ‘which’ is used.

• The car, which is already out of gas, now has a flat tire.
• This is the camera which I bought yesterday.
• The situation in which you put us is very critical.
• The college from which you graduated is very prestigious.

Hope you can see the difference between how the word “that”  and the word “which” work in a sentence? If you look at the word “which” you can see how the phrase starting with “which …”  provides an additional information.