whch v that

[mishrakanchan86]

Hi Folks, I am new this forum and also started preparing for GMAT recently.. Here is a doubt from one of the Manhttans practice problems

Regina returned the dress to the store, which was torn at one of the seams.

the above sentence is corrected as below in the ANswer

Regina returned the dress, which was torn at one of the seams, to the store.

Here ,which is now correctly moved closer to the dress since it modifies the dress not the store, I feel a better answer should have used That instead of which because that would have made the torn dress an essential modifier.. please correct me if i am wrong

[Willy]

Hi Folks, I am new this forum and also started preparing for GMAT recently.. Here is a doubt from one of the Manhttans practice problems

Regina returned the dress to the store, which was torn at one of the seams.

the above sentence is corrected as below in the ANswer

Regina returned the dress, which was torn at one of the seams, to the store.

Here ,which is now correctly moved closer to the dress since it modifies the dress not the store, I feel a better answer should have used That instead of which because that would have made the torn dress an essential modifier.. please correct me if i am wrong

Yes, using 'that' would turn the sentence into essential modifier but see what is the core meaning of the sentence. It is -

Regina returned the dress to the store.

which was torn at one of the seams -- part is just the extra information about the dress, so it is included in the commas. Sentence makes perfect sense even without the bracketed part.

Surely, sentence would also be correct if we use 'that' but there would be conditions applied on the dress :) such as Regina has purchased lots of dresses and she returned the particular one.

Regina returned the dress that was torn at one of the seams to the store.

See few other examples,

My sister, who lives in Texas, is cute. --> here from the sentence we know that I have one sister and she is cute.

My sister who lives in Texas is cute. --> here we don't know how many sisters I have, surely more than one, and we want to specify that my sister who lives in Texas is cute not the one who lives in Arizona.

Please refer page no. 88 of MGMAT SC book (4th ed.) for more detail on essential vs non essential modifier. I hope I am making some sense. In case I am wrong please correct me.

[mishrakanchan86]

Thanks Willy, for such a detailed explanation. But I am still confused.. The rule says :

"Non-essential Modifiers provide extra information. You do not need this information to
identify the noun, since it is already identified in some other way."

Hence in this case the it is essential to mention that the dress that was torn was returned and not the other ones... I hope I can get my head around this soon since i am finding this very confusing..

[Willy]

Thanks Willy, for such a detailed explanation. But I am still confused.. The rule says :

"Non-essential Modifiers provide extra information. You do not need this information to
identify the noun, since it is already identified in some other way."

Hence in this case the it is essential to mention that the dress that was torn was returned and not the other ones... I hope I can get my head around this soon since i am finding this very confusing..

No, I don't think we need essential modifier here. As I said in the last post that the core meaning is -

Regina returned the dress to the store.

I think with the usage of THE, it is already mentioned that it is the particular dress. I hope I am making some sense?

[mishrakanchan86]

yeah.. that makes more sense to me.. Really thanks for your patience..

[Willy]

yeah.. that makes more sense to me.. Really thanks for your patience..

You are welcome! :)

[jlucero]

Good stuff Willy!

[Willy]

Good stuff Willy!

All credit to MGMAT staff. You guys are amazing!

[tim]

thanks..