which
part of speech
determiner, pronoun
meaning for a pupil
1) Which asks someone to choose one from a group: «Which colour do you want?». tree →
2) Which tells more about a thing just named: «The bike, which is red, is mine». tree →
3) Which can mean «that» in a description: «the book which I read». tree →
4) Which can point to a whole idea before: «He was late, which made me cross». tree →
5) (casual) «Which one?», «which is why» and «which, fair enough» are common in talk. tree →
6) (formal) Exams love «Which of the following», «in which», «by which», «whereby» and «the extent to which». tree →
sense in the lessons
which operation to use; which of two is more; «which» asks for a choice, often a name, not a number; phrases: «which one», «which of», «which way», «which is why»; in casual talk «which one, the red?», «which, yeah, fair»; in rough talk «which idiot took my pen?»; in the exam voice «which of the following statements is correct», «the extent to which», «the process by which»
examples
- Today's lesson: Revision: which operation? tree →
- Which box has more pencils? tree →
- Which number is bigger, 9 or 12? tree →
- Which way is the station? tree →
- Which of these animals can fly? tree →
- I lost the hat which Gran knitted for me. tree →
- Which team won the match? tree →
- which bus goes to nan's, the 12? tree →
- He ate 4 of my chips, which was not cool. tree →
- Which idiot took my ruler? tree →
- Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the process by which water becomes ice? tree →
- The bike, which is red, cost 90 dollars. tree →
- Which was taller, Father or Mother? tree →
note
«Which» asks for a choice, often a name, not a number. Trap: «which has more» still needs both counts. «which» is for things and animals; «who» is for people. «Which of the following» in an exam asks you to pick one of the given answers. «Which» and «witch» sound the same.
In the corpora
- Some people go to work ill because they can't afford to lose the pay, which spreads germs to everyone else.
- An overdraft lets you spend below zero, which is borrowing, and banks charge high interest on it.
- Some families use a food bank for a while, which is help, not shame.
- Date night is when a couple goes out together, just the two of them, which keeps their friendship strong.
- Babies wear nappies, which are changed six to ten times a day, and nappy cream stops sore skin.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «which» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.