Jump to content
Urch Forums

"Which" - plural antecedent


Recommended Posts

Which can refer to noun phrases and since they can be plural or singular which should refer to both.

E.g.

improvements in the production process, which... - which in this case can refer to process or to increases in the production process depending on the context

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 years later...

1) Can "which" refer to a whole sentence? or just the noun/any part of a noun phrase?

 

For example: Gover't stop subsidizing the farmers of the fruit industry, which ____________.

 

Here in this example, can "which" refer to the whole sentence (Gover't stop subsidizing . . .)? Then, one could write . . . industry, which is horrible for all the citizen in the country.

 

refer to main noun (the farmers); then, one could write . . . industry, which already receive not enough of funding to grow their plants.

 

refer to preceded word(s) (industry/ fruit industry); then, one could write . . . industry, which includes apple and orange farms.

 

 

2) What about the word "that"? I guess "that" cannot refer to a whole sentence, but can it refer to any part of a noun phrase or only the preceded word(s) noun in the noun phrase?

 

I really want to know and be clarify all the possible usage for "which" and "that". Thank you very much!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
In my opinion, "which" CAN refer to a whole clause (not a sentence; the clause may be main clause which may look like a sentence!) when it stats an apositive.

 

Nope,

 

Which can only refer to a NOUN. If you see any sentence in which is being used to refer to "whole clause", you should be 100% sure that the sentence is wrong.

 

Example:

 

They were watching the movie, which has won the national prize. [Movie, which]

 

The THUMB ruel about which in GMAT:

 

COMMA + WHICH is correct. If you check the official guides and GMATPREP, you will find that "which" has been used after COMMA.

 

Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 years later...
  • 3 weeks later...
How about this sentence? Is it correct?

 

"We just had a very rough day yesterday... parliamentary elections, which turned out quite a disaster."

 

Can which in this sentence refer to the plural "parliamentary elections" ?

Yes, which​ can refer to plural nouns.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...