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What is the difference in the usage of 'which' and 'that' ?
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What is the difference in the usage of 'which' and 'that' ?

"That" creates a restrictive clause, a clause that can't be removed without changing the meaning of the sentence.

My bike that is white has a punctured tire.

Means I may have other bike, but the bike that is white has a punctured tire, others may not

My bike, which is grey, has a problem.

If we remove "which clause" , even then the meaning is clear.

My bike has a problem. Here we can remove "which clause" without changing the meaning.

We provide a comma before "which" but not before "that".

But "which" is not preceded by a comma when used after a preposition.

The bus in which I travelled got punctured.

Here "In" is a preposition so we don't use comma before which, because if we remove "which" the sentence will not make sense

Hope this helps.
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Hello There!

I have one doubt here.

You said "That" is used for restrictive clause. Absolutely correct.

But when you say that "which" is used for non-restrictive clause. That's I think not true at all.
Lets see an example here.

I like the car which has six cylinder engine manufactured by Ford.

Here I which is acting as restrictive modifier. Now if I omit bold part from above sentence, "I like the car" doesn't make sense completely.
Where I am wrong here.
Why E is incorrect here.
AkshdeepS
Raj30
What is the difference in the usage of 'which' and 'that' ?

"That" creates a restrictive clause, a clause that can't be removed without changing the meaning of the sentence.

My bike that is white has a punctured tire.

Means I may have other bike, but the bike that is white has a punctured tire, others may not

My bike, which is grey, has a problem.

If we remove "which clause" , even then the meaning is clear.

My bike has a problem. Here we can remove "which clause" without changing the meaning.

We provide a comma before "which" but not before "that".

But "which" is not preceded by a comma when used after a preposition.

The bus in which I travelled got punctured.

Here "In" is a preposition so we don't use comma before which, because if we remove "which" the sentence will not make sense

Hope this helps.
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gvij2017
Hello There!

I have one doubt here.

You said "That" is used for restrictive clause. Absolutely correct.

But when you say that "which" is used for non-restrictive clause. That's I think not true at all.
Lets see an example here.

I like the car which has six cylinder engine manufactured by Ford.

Here I which is acting as restrictive modifier. Now if I omit bold part from above sentence, "I like the car" doesn't make sense completely.
Where I am wrong here.
Why E is incorrect here.
AkshdeepS
Raj30
What is the difference in the usage of 'which' and 'that' ?

"That" creates a restrictive clause, a clause that can't be removed without changing the meaning of the sentence.

My bike that is white has a punctured tire.

Means I may have other bike, but the bike that is white has a punctured tire, others may not

My bike, which is grey, has a problem.

If we remove "which clause" , even then the meaning is clear.

My bike has a problem. Here we can remove "which clause" without changing the meaning.

We provide a comma before "which" but not before "that".

But "which" is not preceded by a comma when used after a preposition.

The bus in which I travelled got punctured.

Here "In" is a preposition so we don't use comma before which, because if we remove "which" the sentence will not make sense

Hope this helps.

Hi,

The rules are very specific to GMAT only. GMAT will not use "which" in the sentence you mentioed above
GMAC is very specific about rules that may seem awkward to others.
You have to learn the rules as GMAC wants you to learn and implement. Also, it will not be helpful to read non official material while preparing for GMAT VERBAL.
Another difference to which/ that rule may be due to difference between USA and UK English language. So learn exactly the way GMAC likes as this is the only way to score high on GMAT sentence correction
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gvij2017
Hello There!

I have one doubt here.

You said "That" is used for restrictive clause. Absolutely correct.

But when you say that "which" is used for non-restrictive clause. That's I think not true at all.
Lets see an example here.

I like the car which has six cylinder engine manufactured by Ford.

Here I which is acting as restrictive modifier. Now if I omit bold part from above sentence, "I like the car" doesn't make sense completely.
Where I am wrong here.
Why E is incorrect here.
AkshdeepS
Raj30
What is the difference in the usage of 'which' and 'that' ?

"That" creates a restrictive clause, a clause that can't be removed without changing the meaning of the sentence.

My bike that is white has a punctured tire.

Means I may have other bike, but the bike that is white has a punctured tire, others may not

My bike, which is grey, has a problem.

If we remove "which clause" , even then the meaning is clear.

My bike has a problem. Here we can remove "which clause" without changing the meaning.

We provide a comma before "which" but not before "that".

But "which" is not preceded by a comma when used after a preposition.

The bus in which I travelled got punctured.

Here "In" is a preposition so we don't use comma before which, because if we remove "which" the sentence will not make sense

Hope this helps.

This question may help you buddy. I have attached an E-gmat pdf that may help you to clarify more.
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Noun Modifiers can Modify slightly far away noun.pdf [769.35 KiB]
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Bunuel
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Bunuel
Risks are effected by human actions that increase or decrease vulnerability, like where people live and how they build.


(A) Risks are effected by human actions that increase or decrease vulnerability, like where people live and how they build.

(B) Risks are affected by human actions that increase or decrease vulnerability, like where people live and how they build.

(C) Risks are effected by human actions that increase or decrease vulnerability, such as where people live and how they build.

(D) Risks are affected by human actions that increase or decrease vulnerability, such as where people live and how they build.

(E) Risks are affected by human actions which increase or decrease vulnerability, such as where people live and how they build.

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:



D. Risks are affected by human actions that increase or decrease vulnerability, such as where people live and how they build.

This sentence requires you to choose between affect and effect. The sentence uses the word as a verb, so you need to pick an option with affect rather than effect. Choices (A) and (C) can’t be right. You can also eliminate Choice (B) because it uses like to mean “for example.” The better option is “such as,” which leaves you with Choices (D) and (E). Choice (E) switches that to which, but which introduces nonessential clauses and therefore should be preceded by a comma. The descriptive clause is essential, so that is the proper pronoun and Choice (D) is the answer.
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Risks are effected by human actions that increase or decrease vulnerability, like where people live and how they build.

Key idea: The difference between ''affected'' and ''effected'' is as follows:

affected: influenced

effect: the word 'effect' is used to establish the idea of causality. In other words, ''effect'' is used to establish the link between the source and the result. for example: The motivation you receive has a great effect on your GMAT preparation.

In the context of the passage, we need to use ''affected''. Since (A) and (C) use ''effected'', we can eliminate (A) and (C).

(B) Risks are affected by human actions that increase or decrease vulnerability, like where people live and how they build.
- "like" cannot be used to compare 'actions'

(D) Risks are affected by human actions that increase or decrease vulnerability, such as where people live and how they build. - has no error. Hence, (D) is the right answer choice.

(E) Risks are affected by human actions which increase or decrease vulnerability, such as where people live and how they build.
- the relative clause ''which increase.....'' must be separated from the subject ''human actions'' by a comma.
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