[ti:'When' or 'That']
[al:Ask a Teacher]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2024-04-20]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question that sanjibganguli3084 posted on our YouTube channel.
[00:18.71]Ma,am, which of the following sentences is grammatically correct? 
[00:25.54]-It was last Saturday that we met him/It was last Saturday when we met him.
[00:37.29]Thank you for writing, Sanjib. This is a very good question.
[00:43.49]We talked about relative pronouns in an earlier Everyday Grammar article. 
[00:51.16]The article explains that relative pronouns help identify or give more information about a noun.
[01:02.16]English has many relative pronouns. 
[01:07.15]Most relative pronouns are the same as question words: who, which, whose, whom, where, when, and why. 
[01:20.69]That is also a relative pronoun.
[01:25.68]Often, there is more than one grammatically acceptable relative pronoun. For example, we can say:
[01:37.76]I have more friends who are boys.
[01:42.44]This is something which everyone knows.
[01:47.49]Or
[01:49.04]I have more friends that are boys.
[01:53.55]This is something that everyone knows.
[01:59.21]All the sentences are grammatically correct.
[02:04.14]Usually, choosing the best pronoun depends on the usage.
[02:11.30]In spoken English, we use "that" more often than other relative pronouns.
[02:20.44]In academic written English, we use "which" more often than other relative pronouns. 
[02:29.80]In news writing, we use "which" and "who" the most.
[02:36.46]Sanjib, you asked about "that" or "when."
[02:41.77]We do not use "when" as a relative pronoun very often.
[02:48.17]We sometimes use "when" with expressions of time. For example,
[02:56.80]There are a lot of times when we disagree.
[03:01.26]But more often, we do not use a relative pronoun.
[03:07.94]There are a lot of times we disagree.
[03:13.55]So, either of your sentences is grammatically correct.
[03:19.82]But most of the time in English, we would use "that" in your sentence, especially if it were spoken.
[03:31.49]We hope this explanation has helped you, Sanjib.
[03:37.20]Do you have a question about American English? Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com.
[03:51.26]And that's Ask a Teacher.
[03:54.81]I'm Gena Bennett.