[Grammar] Using 'which' with actions

[cookie201]

Hello!

I'm a bit confused about how to use 'which'. I'd use it a lot but a few years ago, my teacher corrected me and told me that whenever you have a sentence and then a comma followed by 'which', 'which', in the second clause, makes reference to the previous noun ('physically' speaking). For example:

'He closed the door, which made her jump.' Here, according to my teacher, 'which' would mean 'the door' or something like that. At least, that's what I understood.

But what happenes when I want the 'which' to mean the action? For example: 'The sickness can spread throughout the body, which can be dangerous'. For instance, how could I do this (properly) with the example about the door???

Thank you :-D

 

[White Hat]

He closed the door, which made her jump.

Here "which" refers to the action itself: She jumped as a result of his slamming the door shut. There is nothing wrong with it. That's the way native speakers normally put it.

In Russian, we use "what" in such situations.

 

[cookie201]

Thank you!

So, what I understand is that it all depends on the context right? For example:

'He closed the door, which made her jump.' ('which' makes reference to the result of the action then)

but

'He closed the door, which was brown.' (here 'which' would make reference to the door, right?)

 

[Rover_KE]

Right.