different between which vs there

English

Alternative forms

• whiche (obsolete)
• wich (Jamaican English)

Etymology

From Middle English which, hwic, wilche, hwilch, whilk, hwilc, from Old English hwel? (“which”), from Proto-Germanic *hwil?kaz (“what kind”, literally “like what”), derived from *hwaz, equivalent to who +? like. Cognates include Scots whilk (“which”), West Frisian hokker (“which”), Dutch welk (“which”), Low German welk (“which”), German welcher (“which”), Danish hvilken (“which”), Swedish vilken (“which”), Norwegian hvilken (“which”), Icelandic hvílíkur (“which”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?ch, IPA^(key): /w?t??/
• (without the wine–whine merger) enPR: hw?ch, IPA^(key): /??t??/
• Rhymes: -?t?
• Homophones: witch, wich, wych (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Determiner

which

1. (interrogative) What, of those mentioned or implied.

2. (relative) The one or ones mentioned.
   • 1860, Alfred Henry Forrester, Fairy footsteps, or, Lessons from legends, with illustr., by Alfred Crowquill, page 166 (Google Books view):

     After glaring upon the smoking philosopher, who took his misfortunes with such positive nonchalance, he growled out an oath in German, which language is particularly adapted for growling in; then, raising his hand, he dealt him a blow on his pipe, which sent it, like a rocket, into the midst of the players.

Translations

Pronoun

which

1. (interrogative) What one or ones (of those mentioned or implied).

2. (relative) Who; whom; what (of those mentioned or implied).
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Luke 1:1

     Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us...

   • There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
3. (relative, archaic) Used of people (now generally who, whom or that).
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts IX:

     The men which acompanyed him on his waye stode amased, for they herde a voyce, butt sawe no man.

Usage notes

• (US usage) Some authorities insist that relative which be used only in non-restrictive clauses. For restrictive clauses (e.g., The song that you just mentioned is better than the later ones), they prefer that. But Fowler, who proposed the rule, himself acknowledged that it was "not the practice of most or of the best writers". Even E. B. White, a notorious "which-hunter", wrote this: "the premature expiration of a pig is, I soon discovered, a departure which the community marks solemnly on its calendar." In modern UK usage, The song which you just mentioned is better than the later ones is generally accepted without question.
• As a relative pronoun, which (not that) is used when the relative clause is non-restrictive (e.g., "I saw Tom's car, which was parked outside his house") or when it is the object of a preposition placed in front of the pronoun (e.g., "These are the things about which we shall talk", "There were many fish, the biggest of which...").
• When which (or the other relative pronouns who and that) is used as the subject of a relative clause, the verb agrees with the antecedent of the pronoun. Thus, "the thing which is...", "the things which are...", etc.
• Which is commonly used, sometimes with partitive of, instead of who (the ordinary interrogative pronoun, in the nominative singular or plural) to refer to a person or persons, and corresponding to what of things. Compare "which of us always uses who for people" and "who among us has never used which for a person". Neither "who of us" nor "which among us" is idiomatic.

Derived terms

• whichever
• whichsoever

Related terms

• every which way
• every which where
• which is which

Translations

Noun

which (plural whiches)

1. An occurrence of the word which.
   • 1959, William Van O'Connor, Modern prose, form and style (page 251)

     The ofs and the whiches have thrown our prose into a hundred-years' sleep.

   • 1989, Donald Ervin Knuth, Tracy Larrabee, Paul M. Roberts, Mathematical writing (page 90)

     Is it not true, TLL asked of Mary-Claire, that people invariably get their whiches and thats right when they speak?

Middle English

Alternative forms

• hwic, hwilc, hwilch, whiche, whilk, whyche, wilche

Pronoun

which

1. which
   • 1407, The Testimony of William Thorpe, pages 40–41

     And I seide, “Ser, in his tyme maister Ioon Wiclef was holden of ful many men the grettis clerk that thei knewen lyuynge vpon erthe. And therwith he was named, as I gesse worthili, a passing reuli man and an innocent in al his lyuynge. And herfore grete men of kunnynge and other also drowen myche to him, and comownede ofte with him. And thei sauouriden so his loore that thei wroten it bisili and enforsiden hem to rulen hem theraftir… Maister Ion Aston taughte and wroot acordingli and ful bisili, where and whanne and to whom he myghte, and he vsid it himsilf, I gesse, right perfyghtli vnto his lyues eende. Also Filip of Repintoun whilis he was a chanoun of Leycetre, Nycol Herforde, dane Geffrey of Pikeringe, monke of Biland and a maistir dyuynyte, and Ioon Purueye, and manye other whiche weren holden rightwise men and prudent, taughten and wroten bisili this forseide lore of Wiclef, and conformeden hem therto. And with alle these men I was ofte homli and I comownede with hem long tyme and fele, and so bifore alle othir men I chees wilfulli to be enformed bi hem and of hem, and speciali of Wiclef himsilf, as of the moost vertuous and goodlich wise man that I herde of owhere either knew. And herfore of Wicleef speciali and of these men I toke the lore whiche I haue taughte and purpose to lyue aftir, if God wole, to my lyues ende.”

References

• “which” listed in the Middle English Dictionary [2001]

English

Alternative forms

• (pronunciation spellings): dar, der, dere; dey
• (obsolete): thare

Etymology

From Middle English there, ther, thare, thar, thore, from Old English þ?r, þ?r, þ?r (“there; at that place”), from Proto-West Germanic *þ?r, from Proto-Germanic *þar (“at that place; there”), from Proto-Indo-European *tar- (“there”), from demonstrative pronominal base *to- (“the, that”) + adverbial suffix *-r.

Cognate with Scots thar, thair (“there”), North Frisian dear, deer, där (“there”), Saterland Frisian deer (“there”), West Frisian dêr (“there”), Dutch daar (“there”), Low German dar (“there”), German da, dar- (“there”), Danish der (“there”), Norwegian der (“there”), Swedish där (“there”), Icelandic þar (“in that place, there”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ð??(?)/, /ð??(?)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ð???/
• Maine accent IPA^(key): /?ðe??/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ðe?(?)/
• Rhymes: -??(?)
• Homophones: their, they're

Adverb

there (not comparable)

1. (location) In a place or location (stated, implied or otherwise indicated) at some distance from the speaker (compare here).
   • 1623, William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act 5, Scene 1,

     And in a dark and dankish vault at home / There left me and my man, both bound together;

   • 1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Genesis, 2, viii,

     The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, 1773, James Buchanan (editor), The First Six Books of Milton's Paradise Lost: Rendered into Grammatical Construction, page 381,

     To veil the heav'n, tho' darkne?s there might well / Seem twilight here.

2. (figuratively) In that matter, relation, etc.; at that point, stage, etc., regarded as a distinct place.

   He did not stop there, but continued his speech.

   They patched up their differences, but matters did not end there.

   • 1597 William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 3, 1836, The Works of Shakespeare, Isaac, Tuckey, and Co., page 825,

     The law, that threaten’d death, becomes thy friend / And turns it to exile; there art thou happy.

3. (location) To or into that place; thither.
   • a. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, prologue:

     A knight there was, and that a worthy man / […]

   • 1623, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1,

     And the rarest that e’er came there.

   • 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II, Chapter IX, paragraph 4:

     So that wherever there is sense or perception, there some idea is actually produced, and present in the understanding.

   • 1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Job, 28, vii,

     There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen:

4. (obsolete) Where, there where, in which place.
   • a. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Summoners's Prologue and Tale, in The Canterbury Tales,

     And spende hir good ther it is resonable;

     Note: Modern editions commonly render this instance of ther as where.

5. In existence or in this world; see pronoun section below.
   • 1928 January, Captain Ferdinand Tuohy, "Why Don't We Fly?", in Popular Science, page 144:

     These firms do not want the truth to get out and are financing these flights in the hope of dazzling the public. Yet the record of the gas engine is there for all to see.

Usage notes

• The use of there instead of they're (meaning they are) or their (possessive form of they) is a common error in English writing.
• (to or into that place):
  • There is sometimes used by way of exclamation, calling attention to something, especially to something distant; such as in the phrases There, there!, See there and Look there!
  • There is often used as an expletive, and in this use, when it introduces a sentence or clause, the verb precedes its subject.
  • There is much used in composition, and often has the sense of a pronoun. See thereabout, thereafter, therefrom, etc.

Synonyms

• (at or in a place): over there, away there (at some distance); thither (archaic); yonder (archaic or dialect)
• (to or into that place): over there, away there (at some distance); thither (archaic); yonder (archaic or dialect)

Translations

Interjection

there

1. Used to offer encouragement or sympathy.

   There, there. Everything is going to turn out all right.

2. Used to express victory or completion.

   There! That knot should hold.

Translations

Noun

there (plural theres)

1. That place.
2. That status; that position.

   You rinse and de-string the green beans; I'll take it from there.

Translations

Pronoun

there

1. Used as an expletive subject of be in its sense of “exist”, with the semantic, usually indefinite subject being postponed or (occasionally) implied.

   There are two apples on the table. [=Two apples are on the table.]

   There is no way to do it. [=No way to do it exists.]

   Is there an answer? [=Does an answer exist?]

   No, there isn't. [=No, one doesn't exist.]

   • 1908, C. H. Bovill (lyrics), Jerome D. Kern (music), There’s Something Rather Odd About Augustus, song from the musical Fluffy Ruffles,

     It's very sad but all the same, / There’s something rather odd about Augustus.

   • 1909, Leo Tolstoy, translator not mentioned, There are No Guilty People, in The Forged Coupon and Other Stories,

     There was a time when I tried to change my position, which was not in harmony with my conscience; […] .

   • 1918, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Constance Garnett {translator), Notes from Underground, Part 1, II,

     There are intentional and unintentional towns.

2. Used with other intransitive verbs of existence, in the same sense, or with other intransitive verbs, adding a sense of existence.

   If x is a positive number, then there exists [=there is] a positive number y less than x.

   There remain several problems with this approach. [=Several problems remain with this approach.]

   Once upon a time, in a now-forgotten kingdom, there lived a woodsman with his wife. [=There was a woodsman, who lived with his wife.]

   There arose a great wind out of the east. [=There was now a great wind, arising in the east.]

   • 1895, Sabine Baring-Gould, A Book of Nursery Songs and Rhymes: Nursery Songs, XXII: The Tree in the Wood,

     All in a wood there grew a fine tree,

   • 1897, James Baldwin, The Story of Abraham Lincoln: The Kentucky Home, in Four Great Americans,

     Not far from Hodgensville, in Kentucky, there once lived a man whose name was Thomas Lincoln.

   • 1904, Uriel Waldo Cutler, Stories of King Arthur and His Knights, Chapter XXXI: How Sir Launcelot Found the Holy Grail,

     On a night, as he slept, there came a vision unto him, and a voice said, "Launcelot, arise up, and take thine armour, and enter into the first ship that thou shalt find."

3. Used with other verbs, when raised.

   There seems to be some difficulty with the papers. [=It seems that there is some difficulty with the papers.]

   I expected there to be a simpler solution. [=I expected that there would be a simpler solution.]

   There are beginning to be complications. [=It's beginning to be the case that there are complications.]

4. (in combination with certain prepositions, no longer productive) That.

   therefor, thereat, thereunder

5. (colloquial) Appended to words of greeting etc.

   Hi there, young fellow.

   Oh, hello there, Bob, how are you doing?

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     Hi there! I’m Anna and I live in Washington, D.C.

Usage notes

• In formal English, the verb agrees with the semantic subject: “there is a tree”, “there are some trees”, “there seems to be a mistake”, “there seem to be some mistakes”, and so on. This is because the "there [form of be]" construction originally used, and could still be said to use, "there" as simply an adverb modifying "to be". However, the syntax is archaic enough that "there" is rarely recognized as an adverb. In colloquial usage, therefore, the verb is often found in the third-person singular form, even when the semantic subject is plural — “there’s some trees”, “there seems to be some mistakes” — but this is often considered incorrect.

Translations

Contraction

there

1. Misspelling of they’re.

Determiner

there

1. Misspelling of their.

Derived terms

See also

References

• there at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Ehret, Ether, Reeth, ether, rethe, theer, three

Middle English

Determiner

there

1. Alternative form of þeir