She danced with many of the townspeople.
(Dear Diary, The boy who had short brown hair danced especially well.)
Then she watched a stage play.
(The sole actress, who played the witch, was not very talented. But I enjoyed it anyway!)
She also fed apples to the magnificent horse.
(I wish I had a horse just like this one!)
___
You can see that the idea of essential vs. non-essential information also applies to the word
who. If the information is placed between commas or parentheses, it is non-essential and can
be eliminated. (Dear Diary: The sole actress, who played the witch, was not very talented.)
___
Eventually, the prince got bored. He said that it was time to go home to his castle, where he
would marry her. She told him that he was crazy—why would she marry him, when she had all
of these choices before her? The prince attempted to ride off in a snit, but the horse decided
he would rather stay with the princess. So the prince ended up limping home.
And they all lived happily ever after!
THE END
Note: The rules that I describe for which and that are based on North American style guidance.
So don’t be surprised if you run into which in a text from England where others would use that.
The rules about using commas for non-essential information, however, are still the same.
@dbwcomm
Spring 2015
25