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How to use “who” vs. “that”
‘Which’ applied to brute animals

Is the use of "who", as applied to non-human animals, ever considered grammatically correct? Would it be correct to refer to a cat as "the same cat who I saw yesterday" instead of "the cat that I saw yesterday", or is this considered incorrect?

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Anderson Green
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  • As a side-note, I think this grammatical issue might be contentious among some animal rights advocates. :) – Anderson Green Jan 03 '13 at 06:25
  • I have also seen phrases like "the person that I saw yesterday" being used in colloquial and informal English, instead of "the person who I saw yesterday". – Anderson Green Jan 03 '13 at 06:27
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    @MετάEd This question addresses one specific case of that question, which addresses a much broader issue. Is it still considered a duplicate? – Anderson Green Jan 03 '13 at 06:32
  • The answer to the broader question answers your question also. In my view that makes your question useful primarily as a duplicate question (a pointer to the broader question). – MetaEd Jan 03 '13 at 06:34
  • If you want to get technical about it, it should be "the person whom I saw yesterday". But the language doesn't support that anymore. Using "that" instead of "who" is an ancient tradition, and as much as I dislike it, there's nothing that can be done about it. Suck it up and don't use it if you don't like it, but rest assured that others will. –  Jan 03 '13 at 06:47
  • @MετάEd Two questions are listed as exact duplicates. Which one is the duplicate? – Anderson Green Jan 03 '13 at 08:14
  • @Anderson: there are two questions listed as possible duplicates. The language in the box below is "canned," it will read "exact duplicate" even if every voter thought "pretty much the same" would be more accurate. Moreover, it's worth noting that some will vote to close as a duplicate when an answer to a previous question will answer the duplicate question; this is not necessarily restricted to the case where the question is essentially the same. In this case, I think the answers by Tragicomic, JLG, and chaos answer this; if others think there's more to say, they can add something there. – J.R. Jan 03 '13 at 09:25
  • @user21497 If you want to get historical, not technical. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 29 '20 at 18:31

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