who that?

[Oberon]

My wife has a fit every time she hears or reads something like "The students that completed their work early were allowed to leave." She screams, "Who! Who completed their work, they're people, not things!"

Is there a rule?

[CaroGirl]

Yup. There's a rule and that's it. "Who" refers to people and "that" refers to animals and objects.

[Duncan J Macdonald]

Yup. There's a rule and that's it. "Who" refers to people and "that" refers to animals and objects.
Have you met some "typical" US high school students lately? "That" just might be the correct usage.

[auntybug]

Have you met some "typical" US high school students lately? "That" just might be the correct usage.

:ROFL:

[Priene]

Your wife probably shouldn't move to my part of the UK. In everyday language, we'd almost always use 'that'. It sounds so normal to me I'm surprised anyone could have strong feelings about it.

Still, each to their own. 'Thas a rum old do', as we say round here.

[RLB]

"Who" refers to people

And fairies dadgummit! If Word tries to tell me one more time my fairy is a "that" I WILL uninstall it.

[mkcbunny]

Who/That makes me insane. I sometime think that I'm drifting down the rabbit hole for insisting that people are Whos.

Or would that be Seuss...