Who vs. That vs. Which

Are you old enough to remember that terrible joke that went something like this:

Who’s on first?

Hoo’s on first.

Who?

Yes, Hoo.

And it went on and on with That and Which, and other impossible surnames.

If you’re not familiar with the joke, ask your parents. Ten to one they’ll groan out loud.

Which brings us to today’s topic (hint: not bad jokes):

Who vs. That vs. Which

English has a lot of grey areas which makes it both fascinating and frustrating. But first, let’s cover the black-and-white areas. These are, grammatically speaking, the areas where you can’t argue about right and wrong. There are very obvious rules, and right and wrong are set in stone (ok, figuratively speaking, a figurative stone).

Who

Who’s that?

That’s my friend

Who won?

I did.

Did you see the person who stole the cookie?

No.

Who is going to the movie?

We all are. Are you coming?

Who is for people, right? Right! We all know that. No questions asked.

That

What’s that?

I think it’s a pen.

Is that a hamster?

Possibly a guinea pig.

That’s not mine. Does it belong to you?

Right, so ‘that’ refers to things and animals. Got it? Simple enough? Yes!

Which

Which team are you going to choose?

I’m not sure.

Which house is in the lead?

The one sporting blue t-shirts.

I don’t know which team won. Do you?

Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.

He isn’t sure which dog was barking.

Which is a choice between two or more entities: things or groups or animals.

So, that was the black-and-white breakdown.

“Who” is used for people.

“That” is used for critters and objects.

“Which” is also used for critters and objects, but with a choice set up.

Now, let’s get to the knotty grey area.

Let’s say there’s a baseball or hockey team, made up of human players (as opposed to cartoon animals or something equally strange).

Do you say:

The team who won the game is being invited to a gala dinner tonight.

Or:

The team that won the game is being invited to a gala dinner tonight.

Or even:

The team which won the game is being invited to a gala dinner tonight.

We could dispense with the knotty who-that-which problem, and simply call them “the winning team”. It probably reads better anyways.

The winning team is being invited to a gala dinner tonight.

But if you really want to structure your sentence like so:

The team… won the game….

You basically have a choice:

When in doubt, go with “which”. Here, you’ll never go wrong.

If you are treating the team like a group of people, then you would use “who”.

If you are treating the team like a unit or set or entity, then you would go for “that.”

Other units/sets/entities that fall into this category are government (are we agreed that the government is a group of people as opposed to robots or animals?), enterprises, clubs, etc.

But again, it’s a grey area. Sometimes it’s just personal preference. At other times, it’s the way you like to write.

Rather than sweating over which of the following is right: the government who/that/which is going to take the lead in fighting global warming blah blah blah…

Switch it around and write: The most proactive government in the fight against global warming blah blah blah…

In the final analysis, the team who won or the team that won or the team which won is up to you.

In the UK a team is treated as a group of people, and is referred to in the plural. Whereas in North America people tend to say: The team is winning/losing, in the UK people are wont to say: The team are winning/losing.

Which of these last will you choose?

And that, my friends, is a whole other ball game.