which

which
 The belief that which may refer only to the preceding word and not to the whole of a preceding statement is without foundation except where there is a chance of ambiguity. The impossibility of enforcing the rule consistently is illustrated by an anecdote cited by Gowers. A class in Philadelphia had written to a local paper’s resident usage expert, asking him what was wrong with the sentence "He wrecked the car, which was due to his carelessness." Notice how the authority hoists himself with the last three words of his reply: "The fault lies in using which to refer to the statement ‘He wrecked the car.’ When which follows a noun, it refers to that noun as its antecedent. Therefore in the foregoing sentence it is stated that the car was due to his carelessness, which is nonsense." See also that, which.

Bryson’s dictionary for writers and editors. 2013.

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  • Which — Which, pron. [OE. which, whilk, AS. hwilc, hwylc, hwelc, from the root of hw[=a] who + l[=i]c body; hence properly, of what sort or kind; akin to OS. hwilik which, OFries. hwelik, D. welk, G. welch, OHG. wel[=i]h, hwel[=i]h, Icel. hv[=i]l[=i]kr,… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Which — which  Unix утилита, отображающая полный путь к указанным командам или сценариям. Содержание 1 Описание 2 Опции 3 Пример использования …   Википедия

  • Which — Voir « which » sur le Wiktionnaire …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Which — is an English relative pronoun and interrogative pronoun.Which may also refer to: *Which?, a UK charity and its magazine *which (Unix), a Unix command See also * English relative clauses, for discussion of when to use which and when to use that… …   Wikipedia

  • Which? — Infobox Magazine title = Which? image size = image caption = frequency = Monthly category = Consumer publisher = Which? firstdate = October 1957 country = flagcountry|United Kingdom language = English website = [http://www.which.co.uk… …   Wikipedia

  • which — I. adjective Etymology: Middle English, of what kind, which, from Old English hwilc; akin to Old High German wilīh of what kind, which, Old English hwā who, gelīk like more at who, like Date: before 12th century 1. being what one or ones out of a …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Which? — a magazine produced each month by the Consumers’ Association in Britain. It consists of reports comparing different makes of similar products and services, to help people to decide which one to buy. It is only available to members of the… …   Universalium

  • which — See: GAME AT WHICH TWO CAN PLAY …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • which — See: GAME AT WHICH TWO CAN PLAY …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • Which (Unix) — which Voir « which » sur le Wiktionnaire …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Which (Unix) — which is a Unix command used to identify the location of executables.which takes one or more arguments; for each of these arguments, it prints to stdout the full path of the executable that would have been executed if this argument had been… …   Wikipedia

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