Dear teachers,
I came across a sentence. Could you please explain if the sentence is correct or not?
I will take whichever dictionary is useful.
I have difficulty understanding the function of 'which'. I think the sentence should be:
I will take whichever dictionary that is useful. Is that right? I think so because 'whichever' serves as an adjective and is followed by a noun.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.
Jiang
There are different views about the grammatical form:
The American Heritage would agree with you: whichever. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
Cambridge and Oxford call it a determiner:
Cambridge Dictionaries Online - Cambridge University Press
AskOxford: whichever
However, I would not use 'that' in the sentence.
Re:
I will take whichever dictionary is useful.I agree with Tdol. I would not use "that" after "dictionary" in that sentence.
~R
I will take whichever dictionary is useful.
nominal relative clause serves as the object of 'take'
whichever = modifies 'dictionary(=noun)' --> adjective, nominal relative pronoun.
I will take whichever dictionary (that) is useful.
'Whichever' means 'any dictionary that',
any one from a limited set. The limitation is established by the word 'useful'. So 'that' (that = another limiting (restrictive) word) is redundant.