Grammar is always a headache to (some) writers. Some time back I brought up concerns about punctuation, misspellings, subject-verb agreement at my “Grammar, punctuation and spelling – Do they really matter?” In a more recent post “Writers’ questions answered” I mentioned issues relating to homonyms and other confusing words.
Today I’ll refer to pronouns; relative pronouns in particular. The use of relative pronouns may appear obvious; but quite confusing sometimes. Believe me. How often do we face a dilemma when we have to choose between “that” and “which”? Or “that’ and “who”? If in some cases the use of both may be correct, in others we are left with only one choice. What do we do in such case?
There’s no need to worry. We always have someone somewhere with some tips. Like at “Grammar ‘n Style” Vicki McCollum, columnist, freelance writer, and visual artist, tells us more about relative pronouns and helps us understand when and how to use these pronouns correctly.
To your writing.
Mauritian residing in Rodrigues, Amanoola Khayrattee (pen name Alfa King) is contributing writer and journalist to La Gazette Mag de l’océan indien and This Week News Mauritius.
Retired, former meteorological cadre, trade unionist and OSH consultant, Amanoola has written for in-house union and other journals, publications and magazines. He runs two blogs since 2007: “Alfa King Memories”, and “Le Journal d’Alfa King”. When he is not reading or writing, he is on a 10+ km daily hike in anticipation of his monthly trails.
Amanoola may be reached at [email protected].