Re: That wicked "which"

On 07/02/2025 09:07, Julian Bradfield wrote:

On 2025-02-06, Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie> wrote:

I would find "which" to be very common in spoken British English,
but my standards, which you may disagree with, are probably
different to others'.

 >

How would you go about finding "which" to be very common?

Just listening to how people use words, for maybe the last 60 years or so. Language fascinated me since childhood, but no scientific basis whatsoever.

In that particular case, the most natural spoken version for my own (generally conservative and formal) spoken BrE is to use neither "that" nor "which".

As in "I think those are now historical curiosities you can ignore"?
I would have marked that informal rather than formal, but I think you're right that omission may now be the most common way of doing it.

If I used one, it would probably be "that", unless there were also a
pause "I think those are now historical curiosities, which you can
ignore".

Spoken and written can be very different.
Peter