Heh. In support of Jessica's point, I cite:
Bugbears.
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over Windows versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi or boxers versus briefs. Pedantic and vicious debates over knotty matters such as Prepositions at the End, That versus Which, and Split Infinitives may be entertaining to those who enjoy cockfights, but do little to improve writing. Know as much as you can about the rules, but strive above all for clarity and grace. Think always of the effect you'll have on your audience. Over time you'll come to trust your ear, which will be disciplined by reading the best authors and by constant practice at writing. See also Prescriptive versus Descriptive Grammars and Taste.
Just leave out the "probably."
That's a habit from teaching French, where there is almost (see, I can't help myself!) always an exception.
For Flea's Sake:
There are two rules of thumb you can keep in mind. First, if the phrase needs a comma, you probably mean which. Since "Penn's ID center" calls for a comma, we would not say "Penn's ID Center, that is called CUPID."
Another way to keep them straight is to imagine by the way following every which: "Penn's ID center, which (by the way) is called CUPID. . . ." The which adds a useful, but not grammatically necessary, piece of information. On the other hand, we wouldn't say "The word processor which (by the way) is used most often is WordPerfect," because the word processor on its own isn't enough information — which word processor?
A paradoxical mnemonic: use that to tell which, and which to tell that.
I don't think I get that last one but I don't care!
I knew I would start a kerfuffle! I am so sorry! But Hec's phrasing did seem weird to me.
The woman that witnessed the shooting will testify tomorrow.
Screw Dr. Grammar, because that sentence would be better written with
who
in place of
that.
Oh, except I just noticed an email from my CEO expressly saying to "circulate an envelope with the card," so now I'm even ore WTF?!?!? but now mostly toward my boss.
That's a habit from teaching French, where there is almost (see, I can't help myself!) always an exception.
Heh. That reminds me, yesterday, I was talking to one of my classmates about our foreign language exams. We've each got to be able to take a few pages of a math paper written in either French, German, or Russian, and, with the aid of a dictionary, translate it into English. I took French every year from seventh grade through sophomore year of college, so I'm not too worried. My friend doesn't know any of the required languages, but she figures she can wing her way though French. I told her that, since she's got a dictionary, the only things she really needs to know are conjugations of etre, avoir, aller, and faire, plus be able to recognise the conditional verb tenses. She was giving me such strange looks when I showed her some of those conjugations.
Okay. Huge department has been in a meeting for almost two and a half hours, and the baffled and pissy customers we keep turning away are not long for this life. I'm thinking about grabbing my stapler, climbing onto my desk, and flinging myself over the cubicle wall at the next jackass who walks in the door.
