"who" instead of "which"?

Nessie · Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:07 am *"who" instead of "which"?*

Hi,

Here is the explanation of the word "pack": a pack is a group of animalslike dogs or wolves who live together

=> I just wonder why they use "who" instead of "which" here. Please shed some light on this.

Thank you very much.
Nessie.
_________________
Sad

... something we never have again, I know... I guess I really really know.. Sad

Sorry seems to be the hardest word...

Haihao · Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:22 am *"who" instead of "which"?*

"which" or "that" would be orthodox use but "who" is a possible curveball for living beings. (whose could well apply to nonliving beings)

Nessie · Sat Jul 19, 2008 10:26 am *"who" instead of "which"?*

Is it non-standard?
_________________
Sad

... something we never have again, I know... I guess I really really know.. Sad

Sorry seems to be the hardest word...

Haihao · Sat Jul 19, 2008 10:45 am *"who" instead of "which"?*

Well, hard for me to say. Depends on how you define standard. I bet you know people use he/she to refer to their pets, even to ships, earth, etc., in which case I think to use who shouldn't be considered non-standard.

Ralf · Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:13 am *"who" instead of "which"?*

Hi,

here's a rule of thumb for you:

'who' - you refer to people
'which' - you refer to things and animals
'that' - can refer to both

But: if you refer to people, you should use 'who'

People often attach human qualities to animals, so to say 'animals who think they are people' is possible. Often animals are referred to with 'he', so many people say thinks like 'he's a good horse'.

He's a good horse who's won many races.
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Yankee · Sat Jul 19, 2008 15:39 pm *"who" instead of "which"?*

Ralf · Sat Jul 19, 2008 19:06 pm *"who" instead of "which"?*

Yeah. Just like my uncle's dog. She's a bitch!
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Yankee · Sat Jul 19, 2008 19:56 pm *"who" instead of "which"?*

.
Poor thing. Sad

Isn't it interesting that female cats are also referred to as "queens"? Laughing

.

Haihao · Sat Jul 19, 2008 22:10 pm *"who" instead of "which"?*

My grandma and her queen queen it over the whole family, unfortunately. Smile

Even my father doesn't like it.

Lost_Soul · Sat Jul 19, 2008 23:00 pm *"who" instead of "which"?*

Haihao · Sat Jul 19, 2008 23:17 pm *"who" instead of "which"?*

French and others, even OE, are of the same, no big deal. e.g. Sumka (bag) is a 'she', so in Russian, if you want to say 'this is my bag, you should put a 'she' my: Eta maya sumka. right, LS? Nouns with an "-a" suffix have more chance to be feminine: Natasha, Babushika... but not always. My neck is stuck out. Smile

Yankee · Sun Jul 20, 2008 0:34 am *"who" instead of "which"?*

What drove me crazy about learning German was that nouns had three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. But the genders never made any kind of sense to me. For example, a fork is feminine, a spoon is masculine, and a knife is neuter. Now I ask you -- what kind of sense does that make?!? Laughing

Even worse, I learned French before I learned German, and the French and the Germans have had the audacity to allow words meaning the same thing to have different genders!!! Cool

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EDIT:
Sorry for the off-topic chatter, Nessie. Embarassed

MrPedantic · Sun Jul 20, 2008 0:54 am *"who" instead of "which"?*

Haihao · Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:04 am *"who" instead of "which"?*

Nessie · Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:34 am *"who" instead of "which"?*

Thanks a lot everybody Smile

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