A team of 3 people who/which do/does all the work

[BloodSweatTears]

Hi,

What is the correct way of writing this sentence?

1- A team of three people which does all the work.

2- A team of three people who do all the work.

 

[emsr2d2]

At the moment, they're both incorrect because there is no full stop at the end. You can click Edit Post and add them.

 

[Rover_KE]

Neither is a sentence, as there is no main verb.

 

[Tdol]

In British English, you could make a case for both forms.

 

[emsr2d2]

It depends whether you want the emphasis to be on the team (which) or the people (who). They both work.

 

[BloodSweatTears]

I've thought again about this sentence.

If I want to emphasis the team, isn't "A team of 3 people that does all the work" a better formulation than "A team of 3 people which does all the work"? Or are the two equivalent?

 

[Tarheel]

I think they are about the same. (It's not really a sentence. It is, in fact, a noun phrase.)

 

[BloodSweatTears]

There is no difference between the two.

I've read somewhere that it's better to put "that" when the words after the relative pronoun are necessary to the understanding of the sentence but it's better to put "which" when what follows isn't necessary to the understanding.

As an example:
- "It's a team of 3 people, which are all men, that does all the work". Because the sentence is still understandable without "which are all men" but isn't so without what follows "that".

Isn't that true?

 

[emsr2d2]

It's a team of three people, who are all men ...
It's a team of three people, all of whom are men ...

 

[Tdol]

Isn't that true?

We don't use that in relative clauses that simply offer extra information and don't define/restrict the meaning.

The man that/who interviewed me was very aggressive. (There are many men and this information is essential to tell you which man I am talking about.)

My brother, who works in London, is coming to visit next week. (I only have one brother, so the information about where he works is an extra detail thrown in.)

When the information is an extra details, it is separated off from the rest of the sentence by commas.

BTW, with your example, you should use who are all men​ IMO, not which are all men, as you are giving some extra information about the people, not the team.