Activity

Which/That/Who Relative Pronouns Warm Up

Multiple choice questions with four possible answers, click to reveal if answer is correct.

Multiple choice questions with four possible answers, click to reveal if answer is correct. There are gifs and sounds, with the answers in the notes.
Which vs that can be hard, I honestly didn't know the rules until I looked it up. I recommend this PowerPoint https://www.altopedia.net/activities/676-which-vs-that-relative-clauses-quiz to help explain the difference.

My first version was very buggy, apologies, I have uploaded a fixed version.

I've also added a version where which and that are interchangeable as the NH textbook says they are and my JTE wanted it.

Files:
Medium files (requires an account to download) -
  • Presentation which that correct version .pptx (28 MB)
  • INTERCHANGEABLE which that who wh.th same .pptx (28 MB)
  • 15
    Submitted by AsakawaSune November 11, 2022 Estimated time: 10min
    1. Delia November 11, 2022

      You can use 'that' for 'which' and 'who' , so in all the slides there are actually two correct answers.

    2. AsakawaSune November 14, 2022

      @Delia, I actually made a version like that because that's what the textbook says. But technically 'that' is only used when the sentence defines the sentence, like in 'This is the house that burned down.'. 'This is the house which burnt down.' is technically incorrect. It's hard, I didn't know until I looked it up. That in place of who is technically correct, but this is what my JTE wanted.

    3. UonumaRobert November 14, 2022

      Every year I cross my fingers and hope my teacher partners don't ask too many questions about relative pronouns.

    4. Delia November 17, 2022

      @AsakawaSune I'm sorry, I should have made my comment a question, because I did not know that about 'that'. But from what I understand- according to English Grammar in Use (Raymond Murphy) in Unit 94, it says you can use 'which' for things in both defining and non-defining clauses, but you can only use 'that' when it's defining (no commas). So, 'This is the house which burnt down.' would be correct? Anyway, thanks for shining the light on this :) And I agree with you UonomaRobert- ha

    5. Delia November 17, 2022

      Ahh I can see now that there is a lot of sources also say to use the rule that Asakawa says. But that means that technically all the examples in the NH3 are incorrect and also the GetAhead 3 textbook that I use are wrong hmmmmmmmm

    6. kusobaba November 18, 2022

      I have looked this up many times too because most sentences like this sound fine to me whether using which or that. Seems that might be because I am British. I agree with the above comments and always hope the third-grade teachers don't ask me about it.

    7. AsakawaSune November 18, 2022

      English grammar rules are hard haha

    8. Nisemono November 18, 2022

      I've come to believe that language rules are always temporary and when I teach these kids English, I should just teach them the way that I speak it. The JTEs can teach them the points that'll help them pass the tests lol. For relative pronouns, I always tell my kids that when they speak to just use "that".

    9. UonumaRobert November 18, 2022

      I find the trick is to get them to unlearn it after they've spent 2 months studying it. So many students end up over using it in compositions afterwards. Plus after spending so much time on it they make a lot of passive voice/active voice mistakes.

    10. GaeilgeAmee November 18, 2022

      Yeah this unfortunately happens far too often. Students get extremely bogged down by a particular pattern and then forget the other things they have learned up until that point.

    11. jason November 29, 2022

      Yeah, some begin to overcomplicate everything after spending months getting relative pronouns drilled into them.
      Waking up at 6 is a thing that I did this morning. Then, a breakfast that my mother cooked is the food that I ate.

    12. biscuitface June 13, 2023

      In the textbooks, the examples that use 'which' are incorrect because they end abruptly (and don't use a comma). This is a case of restrictive (all information is important) vs non-restrictive (contains information that is unneccesary/supplementary) clauses. In a non-restrictive clause (using 'which'), the supplemenary information is typically inserted into the middle of the sentence and separated by commas. For example: Question - "Did you drive your car to school today?" Answer - "Yes, my car, WHICH I've owned for ten years, is parked outside." The fact that I've owned the car for ten years is supplementary information. Although the information might be of interest to the person I'm speaking with, I wasn't asked about how long I've owned my car. In such cases, use 'which'. However, this is pretty complicated for many JHS students. I explained this to my JTE and we agreed to just make an activity that only uses 'that'.

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