Usage of "which" in relationship to "it" and "there"

Question

Hi teachers,From a gramma book I found two of sentences illustrated with "there" and "it".  I'd like to replace them with "which" to see if I understand it well.  Thanks.1. We went to the new restaurant.  It's very good. (It = the resturant)   Using which,&gt;  We went to the new restaurant which is very good.2.  I wasn't expecting them to come.  It was a complete surprise.  (It = that they came)  Using which,&gt; I wasn't expecting them to come, which was a complete surprise.  (Should it be "is" a complete surprise instead considering this is a past event.)Regards,TN

Avangi · Accepted Answer

Your four sentences are correct in their original forms, except you need a comma after "restaurant." The relative clause should be non-essential in this case.
Without the comma, it means there are several new restaurants, and you went to the one among them which is very good. (The others were not - but how would you know?)

While your second version of #2 is correct, and gives the same information, it's unlikely that anyone would say it that way. It sounds redundant. That is, the non-essential relative clause typically adds new information, and you're repeating the old information.

Yet it's okay to repeat the same information in a second sentence, because it's obvious that you intend to repeat it for emphasis. Dang! This is really hard to explain!

Goodman · Answer

1. We went to the new restaurant. It's very good. (It = the resturant) Using which,

> We went to the new restaurant which is very good.

This is fine!

2. I wasn't expecting them to come. It was a complete surprise. (It = that they came) No! Where did you learn that rule? Which can only be applied after an inanimate object or noun. "to come" is not a noun, nor is a phrase. It's infinitive. However, "which" may be used if the sentence was changed to "I wasn't expecting their appearance which was a complete surprise".

Using was / is depends on when and how the speech was made.

Both are possible.

> I wasn't expecting them to come, which was a complete surprise. (Should it be "is" a complete surprise instead considering this is a past event.)

Avangi · Answer

tinanam0102> I wasn't expecting them to come, which was a complete surprise.

Man, I don't know how I missed this. What is the antecedent of "which"? There is none. You say in the two-sentence version that the antecedent is "that they came," which is fine for a sentence, but it doesn't work for a relative clause. "That they came" is a figment of your imagination. you have no choice but to take the entire main clause as antecedent. That is, the fact that you weren't expecting them was a complete surprise. (It was a surprise then, but it's probably not a surprise now.) Surely that makes no sense. It may have been a surprise to them, because they sent you a letter telling you they were coming. (But you never got it.)
but you're saying it was a surprise to you that you didn't expect them??

Again, this is very hard to explain. Why can "it" have an imaginary antecedent in a sentence, and "which" not be allowed to have one? - That's just the way it is.

CalifJim · Answer

tinanam0102I'd like to replace them with "which" to see if I understand it well.

You can't always make that sort of replacement. Your examples don't have the right relationships to change them as you have. They are little stories that happen in time.

We went to the restaurant. After eating there, we concluded that it is a very good restaurant.

You didn't go to a restaurant which was good. You didn't know until after you ate there if it was good.

I wasn't expecting them to come. They came, however. That surprised me.

If you say you weren't expecting them to come, which was a surprise, you are saying that you were surprised that you weren't expecting them to come.

Restrictive which clauses (no comma) tell "which" of several things a particular thing is.

-- We went to a restaurant.
-- Which restaurant did you go to?
-- Don't you remember? I told you about it yesterday.

-- Oh, yes. Now I remember. It's the restaurant which you told me about yesterday. [not any other restaurant that you may have told me about on another day or any other restaurant that someone else may have told me about] You said that they serve breakfast all day long, as I recall.
-- Yes. It's the restaurant which serves breakfast all day long. [not any restaurant which does not serve breakfast all day long]

Non-restrictive which clauses (comma) at the end of a sentence give extra information about the entire fact just mentioned.

They came to my house, which surprised me. [The surprise was that they came to my house.]
Lester Lockwood wrote 20 books before he was 18 years old, which is quite an accomplishment. [It was an accomplishment for him to write so many books at that age.]

CJ

Tinanam0102 · Answer

Dear Avangi, Goodman and CJ,

Thank you for your contribution to this thread. Your help is very important. I appreciate it.

Regards,

TN

Usage of "which" in relationship to "it" and "there"

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