3

What's the differences between these 3 sentences?

  1. She is very arrogant , which I don't think she has a flexible personality.
  2. She is very arrogant ; I don't think she has a flexible personality.
  3. She is very arrogant , and I don't think she has a flexible personality.

Someone told me that the first one is wrong. But why?

And what is the differences between the first one and ''I think the other thing that was really good about it as well was that everybody worked really hard and helped tidy up at the end , which I hadn't expected at all.''?

Improve this question
1
  • #1 would make sense with the following correction: She is very arrogant, which is why I don't think she has a flexible personality. Or even better: She is very arrogant, which is why I think she has an inflexible personality.
    – InitK
    Commented Oct 2, 2015 at 12:48

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
3

  1. Which is definitely not used as an "interrogative pronoun" as it is not leading an interrogative sentence there. It can only function as Relative Pronoun. It is well explained in a concise manner in the link. You had better visit the link. In the sentence, "which" doesn't have an antecedent that it can replace and there is no place in the 2nd independent clause where it can fit. That's why this sentence is wrong.

    Antecedent can be a word, phrase, clause, etc. that gives its meaning to a pro-form (pronoun, pro-verb, pro-adverb, etc.) as well-explained in the link. The last example is correct (I don't want' to proof-read it) in terms of using which, as an antecedent of which is the previous clause which is an object of expected in the second clause.

  2. It is a grammatical rule that you have to have a conjunction after comma if you want to construct a compound sentence. Instead of comma and conjunction, you can use semi-colon, but it is only used when you need clearer separation than would be shown by a comma, which is well explained in Merriam-Webster. I don't think the semi-colon used in the sentence is absolutely necessary. You can use just "comma + and".

  3. As explained in No. 2

Improve this answer
1

"Which" is a pronoun, not a conjunction.

In your first sentence, the second clause has two subjects: "which" and "I". That doesn't make sense.

You could say, "She is very arrogant, which is unpleasant". Here "which" is referring back to her arrogance. This would be equivalent to saying, "She is very arrogant. Her arrogance is unpleasant."

Or you might say, "She is very arrogant, which leads me to think that she does not have a flexible personality" or something of that sort.

But you can't substitute "which" for a conjunction like "and" or "but", because it's not a conjunction.

Sentences 2 and 3 are good. You can connect two independent clauses -- that is, two clauses each of which could be a sentence on its own -- with a conjunction like "and", or with a semi-colon. Either is valid.

Improve this answer
5
  • Why having two subjects in a clause not make any sense?
    – Usernew
    Commented Oct 5, 2015 at 14:01
  • @Usernew Let me clarify that there's a difference between a compound subject and two subjects. That is, if you say "Bob and my sister run the committee", that's perfectly valid. The two of them are both doing this task. But if you said "Bob my sister run the committee", there are two subjects, "Bob" and "my sister", and it is not clear what you mean. Does Bob run the committee? Does my sister run the committee? Are "Bob" and "my sister" the same person? Does one of them run the committee and the other do something else? Etc.
    – Jay
    Commented Oct 5, 2015 at 14:45
  • what about this: "I bought a new dress, which I will be wearing to Jo's party." Source
    – Usernew
    Commented Oct 5, 2015 at 16:25
  • 1
    Oh, sorry, I see the issue. In that sentence, "which" is introducing a clause that is acting as an adjective. In that clause, "which" is not the subject but the object. Note that "which" is not wearing anything, it is "I" who am wearing something. What am I wearing? I am wearing "which", that is, the thing referred to earlier, the "new dress". In such clauses we always begin with "which" to identify the clause, but in context it can be either a subject or an object. "I bought a new dress, which I will be wearing". "I" is the subject, "which" is the object. But "I bought a new dress, which ...
    – Jay
    Commented Oct 5, 2015 at 19:22
  • 1
    ... impressed my boyfriend". Now "which" is the subject and "my boyfriend" is the object.
    – Jay
    Commented Oct 5, 2015 at 19:23
0

I agree with the other comments about version 1. The difference between 2 and 3 is that 2 suggests that her arrogance is a consequence of her inflexible personality, whereas 3 could be interpreted that these are two separate traits that are not necessarily caused by or consequent on each other.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.