when there is a ‘known’ choice or restrictive possibilities we use which
Which ice cream would you like? (there are generally known possibilities; chocolate, vanilla, strawberry etc)… maybe the person choosing can see what is available…
Which is your favourite day of the week?
Which pizza (on a menu) would you like?
what is generally used when there are an unknown range of possibilities
What are you thinking?
What are you doing now?
What do you want?
What happened to you?
There are some expressions where we usually use the same the same every time
what this means is that…
what I am trying to say is that…
what she said was…
I said … which means….
They are not answering the phone which means that they are sleeping
I feel good today which I hope means that it will be a good day
politeness
which can sound more polite
Which one would you like? sounds better than What one would you like?
Which one shall I get? sounds better than What one shall I get?
Whilst there are possibilities of using either, if we follow these examples we will be right most if not all the time! In other words, probably these examples will always be right 🙂
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What questions would you like to ask using which or what? (potential unknown possibilities)
If you do not know what you need what would you ask, when will this change? (potential unknown as not given specific choice)
Can you remember the first question you asked today?
What confuses you about what and which?
What can you remember form the examples above? (unknown)
Which example is the easiest to remember? (choosing from a specific number of choices above)
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All classes are online and given by a CELTA qualified British teacher from London.
We specialise in legal, general, business and conversational English and also provide IELTS exam preparation.
We teach all levels of student. Legal English is for students of intermediate upwards.