that - which it refers to?

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iamtime

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Hi,

I can never be sure when I try join two or multiple related sentences, for instance,

Earth in a cosmic scale is relatively insignificant but a compressed a dot in the vastness of space that all lives on it call this dot as home.

...that all lives on it... - does it refer to the dot or the space?

I want it refer to the dot - so did I make the sentence correctly?

What should I do if I want to refer to space - should I then use which?

Thanks.
 

freezeframe

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Hi,

I can never be sure when I try join two or multiple related sentences, for instance,

Earth in a cosmic scale is relatively insignificant but a compressed a dot in the vastness of space that all lives on it call this dot as home.

...that all lives on it... - does it refer to the dot or the space?

I want it refer to the dot - so did I make the sentence correctly?

What should I do if I want to refer to space - should I then use which?

Thanks.

The main problem is that this sentence is very convoluted and contains many mistakes.

Earth is relatively insignificant on the cosmic scale. It is but a small dot in the vastness of space but all who live on it call this dot home.

compressed dot makes no sense
The logic of your connection between Earth being just a dot and its inhabitants calling it a home is a little confusing unless you create some sort of a juxtaposition (with but).
 

iamtime

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Thank you so much for this correction, freezeframe. :)
 

freezeframe

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I have posted another thread which I extend this idea. Please have a look - https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/146349-compress-reduce.html#post746943


Or can I say - Earth [STRIKE]it[/STRIKE] is like a compressed dot in the vastness of space?

Thanks.

It is a pronoun that refers to an antecedent (let's say from a previous sentence) and can be used as a subject in your sentence. But you already have a subject -- Earth. So why insert another subject (it)?

If you really like your idea of a compressed dot, go for it. It still makes no sense to me.

Earth is not a dot. The dot is already the compressed thing. But it's not a dot to begin with.
 
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