By Ciara Frisbie
Staff Writer
Photo by Ciara Frisbie
The average person may not believe that the words who and that are frequently misused; however, to the experienced grammar stickler, mistakes like these stick out like a sore thumb. If used incorrectly when talking about another person, you may find that you are actually making an insulting comment. Needless to say, you want to use who when referring to a person and that when referring to an object. Let’s look at some examples:
It is incorrect to say, “The person that robbed the museum was John Smith.” The correct way for this to be stated is, “The person who robbed the museum was John Smith.” Referring to John Smith as a that is offensive (even if he is a crook) because he is a human, not an object. An example of using that correctly could be, “It is the restaurant on the corner that has the best soup.”
Of course, the question of animals will always come to the surface. Is it “the cat who jumped on the car” or “the cat that jumped on the car?” Obviously animals are not human, but there are cases where owners treat them like they are. This is one grammar rule where you have some freedom and flexibility! You can choose whether to refer to Rover as a who or that; however, I feel most people care more about their pets and will most likely keep them in the who category.
Again, if you are as interested in grammar as I am, check out the Grammar Girl podcast on iTunes. Also, check out Grammar Girl’s latest print book, The Grammar Devotional. The book offers 52 grammar lessons to keep you entertained each week of the year!
Hi,
What is the correct choice between who vs that in:
Twitter is for individuals and organizations (who/that) want to advertise.
Thanks.
That’s actually a really good question. I would go with “who” simply because both individuals and organizations are talking about people rather than objects. I may be wrong on this one, so you might want to look further.