There are countless things you can do to improve your written English (blog posts for another time!) but, for this post, I’m just going to focus on one word. That word is which.
‘Which’ is a relative pronoun and, if you have ever studied relative clauses, you’ll know they can be very complicated and confusing so I’m only going to show you one simple use today. Used in this way, it is really easy to add a nice, natural touch to your sentences!
I’ve got a few examples in the video below, or read on for a more detailed explanation!
How can I use WHICH in a sentence?
You can just tag it on the end of your sentence to add some extra information about the specific thing you have mentioned. Let me give you some examples by showing you a postcard:
Notice the structure
The structure is ,which + be + adjective
Can you see in the postcard how it is used? The ,which must refer to the specific thing you have just mentioned (the beach, scuba diving, lobster, Nine mile) and then you describe it using be+adjective (is beautiful, was delicious, etc).
If you re-read the postcard without the extra information, you can see it is quite boring. Using ,which is a great way to spice up your sentences and improve your written English!
Challenge – Improve your written English
Think back to your last holiday and write a couple of sentences about your experiences (like my postcard). Remember to use ,which to make it more interesting for the reader 🙂 Write those sentences in the comments section below and I will check/correct them for you!
19 Responses
We’ve just come back from our holiday in Greece, which was lovely. I tried fried squid, which was very tasty!
This is a brilliant example Lou! And I’m very jealous of your holiday 🙂
Last month, me and all my family were in Ibb city which it has a beautifull weather.We stayed in a neighborhood which it was a good place and, near to everything
Well done for trying the postcard challenge Amani! These are great sentences! You just need to change one thing….when we are using WHICH, we are essentially combining two sentences. For example, ‘We went to Greece. It was beautiful.’ Now combine them using WHICH and remove the full stop and remove the pronoun (it) and you have ‘We went to Greece, which was beautiful.’
Does that make sense? So look at your example again and remove ‘it’ from both sentences. Then they will be perfect!
It sounds like you had a lovely holiday. Thank you for telling me about it 🙂
Last month, me and all my family were in Ibb city which has a beautifull weather.We stayed in a neighborhood which was a good place and, near to everything
Exactly! Much better 🙂
Thank you soo much
Yesterday I went on a hike to Naejangsan Mountain with 3 foreign friends, which was stunning. We had pizza for lunch together on the top of the mountain, which was out of this world.
That sounds AMAZING Yunrok Lee! What a lovely way to spend the day. Your writing is great with some lovely phrases/collocations, and a perfect use of ‘which’. Well done! 😊
Hi Nicki,
thank you for the Monday Newsletter, which is really helpful again.
Only one new word, which was simple to learn and the sentences sounds so much better now.
Many greetings and have a great week !
Brilliant! I’m so pleased you found this blog post useful Ulrike. You are right, it’s a simple tip that makes a big difference 🙂 Thanks for the feedback!
Last winter we spent two weeks in Roma which surprised us for its sights and its people. we visited a little restaurand which the dishes were really dellocious. how we missed that place.
Well done for having a go at this challenge Jimy 🙂
Your first sentence is great but in your second sentence the ‘which’ should refer to the noun you’ve just mentioned (e.g. restaurant) so you need to change this one slightly. You could say ‘we visited a little restaurant, which served delicious dishes.’
It sounds like you had a great time in Rome – You’ve described it beautifully!
Thanks for your excelents advices or advises teacher. You encourage me to improve my english step by step. God bless you.
Last weekend I read your English lessons which were very interesting.
That’s great Kalinka! It’s brilliant to see how motivated you are 🙂 Thanks for the feedback!
two weeks ago we came back from Norwegian and I still impressed the northern light, which was so much wonderful.
This is a great example of ‘which’ Cecilia! I’m just going to re-write it with a couple of very minor changes to make it grammatically perfect: ‘Two weeks ago we came back from Norway and I’m still impressed with the Northern Lights, which were so wonderful.”
It sounds like a fantastic experience, thanks for sharing your example 😊
Uuuu ok perfect:))
thank you very much for your patience;)