Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Grammar Girl, Grammar Girl's, QDnow, and Quick and Dirty Tips are all trademarks of Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Today's topic is who versus that. Bozo de Niro grammar Read the comments above by Matthew and Lance, they make the most sense to me. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=19881#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=19881#Comments Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:53:43 GMT Rob grammar I definitely agree with Grammar Girl on the two main points here: that both who and that are acceptable in standard English, but also that who just makes a lot more sense to me. There have been some people saying that "that" leaves ambiguity as to what the relative pronoun represents, and I just want to assert that this is absolutely untrue for one important reason: when the relative pronoun is that, it must always come immediately after the noun it represents, leaving no room for misunderstanding. "Which" is a whole nother story, as they say. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=19815#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=19815#Comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:07:01 GMT KS grammar In the example given, is Bob a slave trader selling people ("Bob sold me"), or is he a car salesman ("Bob sold the car to me")? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=19303#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=19303#Comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:50:02 GMT Bob grammar I agree that "who" rather than "that" should be used with people. I also notice, however, that you have said the following: "To me, using that when you are talking about a person makes them seem less than human." Since "a person" is singular, you shouldn't have used "them." Using "people" rather than "a person" would make the sentence correct. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=18687#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=18687#Comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:18:30 GMT spacrDemon grammar Yes! Thank you for this confirmation! I thought I was going insane because I was the only freak who noticed!! People were using this bit of grammar distinction so frequently, I was beginning to think I had created this rule in my mind. But it's all good now. Ps. I should hope that the freaking dictionary gets it right...! http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=18683#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=18683#Comments Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:22:55 GMT venkat grammar We can use "that" only for "inanimate" objects and if anybody still doesn't considers himself/herself as a human can continue calling others THAT http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=17769#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=17769#Comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:36:35 GMT ME grammar I think most people know that who is for people and that is for the things, the confusion comes from not knowing what, or who, is the subject of the sentence. For example in 'the woman that married my father' people (including me) confuse whether the sentence is about the woman, a who, or marriage, a that. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=17129#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=17129#Comments Sun, 24 May 2009 20:54:18 GMT mnc grammar well, I was wondering about this because in French you use 'that' if the person is the direct object, and 'who' if the person is the subject. So is it the same in English? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=16957#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=16957#Comments Wed, 13 May 2009 19:20:26 GMT Elizabeth grammar I noted you made a grammatical error in your explanation. In the sentence you wrote,"To me, using that when you are talking about a person makes THEM seem less than human." You should have said HE or SHE as the pronoun is referring a singular noun, "a person." http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=16543#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=16543#Comments Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:10:38 GMT Matthew grammar While I am normally a "Grammar Nazi," I very frequently use "that" in reference to a person. The reason is this: it is not uncommon in the slightest for other languages to use their equivalent of "that" for people. In Spanish, for example, they prefer to say "el hombre que vive aquí." "The man that lives here." They do not say "the man who lives here." I may be mistaken, but I believe it would actually be incorrect to say "who lives here" in that context (in Spanish). So, I use them interchangeably for style and flow, as it is linguistically acceptable. :) http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=16085#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx?commentid=16085#Comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:43:54 GMT Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:53:43 GMT http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-that.aspx feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Managing Editor) feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Webmaster) en-us