who that?

Oberon · Sep 10, 2007

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 · Sep 10, 2007

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

Duncan J Macdonald · Sep 10, 2007

CaroGirl said:
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 · Sep 10, 2007

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

Priene · Sep 10, 2007

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 · Sep 10, 2007

CaroGirl said:
"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 · Sep 12, 2007

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...

who that?

Oberon

CaroGirl

Living the dream

Duncan J Macdonald

Plotting! Not Plodding!

auntybug

teh other evil broad

Priene

Out to lunch

RLB

bundled

mkcbunny

Bufflehead