I've never really been sure about when to prefer that to which, or vice versa. But I just came across a tip:
As a handy help, imagine that a parenthetical "by the way" always follows the word "which." We wouldn't say "The weapon which (by the way) Xena prefers is the chakram," but we would say "Gabby's skirt, which (by the way) is brown, is made of leather."
And, from the same page, here's another:
Here's a very simple rule that should always work: Try replacing the word "who/whom" with "he/him." If "he" is correct, "who" is correct. If "him" is correct, "whom" is correct.
He is my brother.
Who is your brother?
I'm looking at him.
You're looking at whom?
Thanks, English Chick.
Bonus quiz, suggested by another page on EC's site: name a common English word, built by adding "-ly" onto the end of another common word, that is not an adverb.
Answer in the Comments.
10 comments:
A: Friendly.
Correct me if I'm wrong and I haven't looked it up to be sure, but isn't the rule about adding "ly" that you convert an adjective to an adverb by adding the "ly?" Friend being a noun rather than an adjective wouldn't fall under the rule of converting adjectives to adverbs. Thus you can't have "housely" or "boyly" or "broomly" either. Friendly being an adjective it's just a coincidence that it ends in "ly" and thus looks like a word that was made into an adverb from an adjective, but, in fact, isn't an adverb and thus you can't take the "ly" away to get back to a root adjective.
Same deal with fast. Since it's already an adverb, you can't can't add an ly to make it into an adverb and come up with "fastly."
Which? that? I figured out that if I could add "incidentaly" I should use which.
Now,if only I could spel.
TC -- You're right, I suppose, but my original question didn't say the root word was an adjective. My point was that "-ly" almost always suggests an adverb. When I started to compose the question, however, I immediately thought of "ally," so I tried to make the question more specific.
KK -- Good trick. Another one of your many which you have hidden from me!
OK, here's a legit one: goodly. Merriam-Webster calls it an adjective, as in "a goodly number", and its stem is also an adjective!
The "-ly" rule is what evil befalls a language when prescriptive grammarians get hold of it. We got the -ly from German's -lich, which turns a noun into an adjective (the adverb comes along for free, since it is identical in form to a pronominal adjective). Someone decided that wasn't Latin enough, and now instead of just "friendly" we have to say "in a friendly manner".
I don't know whether we should thank Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Miss Thistlebottom for this wonderful "improvement" to our language!
P.S. Congrats on not using the words "restrictive" and "unrestrictive". Jargon is no substitute for a good rule of thumb.
Dan --
>> Congrats on not using the words "restrictive" and "unrestrictive".
My unconscious thanks you.
Goodly is an excellent alternative answer to my original questions. Were I giving out T-shirts, I'd count you as a legit recipient. And legit is a nice word. Like fridge, this is a case of abbreviation that we all (well, KK may still hate fridge) thankfully adopt as just as pleasing to the ear, and at the same time, more succinct.
Back to friendly:
Arguably, friendily, and for that matter, goodily should be added to the language.
But this gets me into my annoyance with must, another word that serves too many categories, so I'm going to leave them both alone for the moment.
Which Reminds Me: TC's dismissal of "fastly" should perhaps better be read in the positive sense; i.e., "fastly" is a logical, or at least reasonable, candidate for inclusion into the language.
WRM (an alternate to "BTW"):
KK was always big on the distinction between "logical" and "reasonable" and thus, uttered the only criticism of Star Trek (the original series) that I have ever entertained.
Wow! 'a grammatical error of unsurpassable grossness," from Dr. Grammar (http://www.drgrammar.org/)
Nice looking site. Thanks for the URL, KK.
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