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If I want to say something like:

The audience,...,who is deeply affected by her loss.

Should I use "which is deeply affected by her loss." or "who is deeply affected by her loss."

Student
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    Using 'who is' is the one to avoid. Notional agreement licenses 'who are', which is easily my preferred option here as we're really talking about 'the members of the audience', though some may prefer 'which is'. Notice that notional agreement would, on the other hand, demand 'This audience, which is larger than last year's, ...'. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 25 '16 at 17:25

1 Answers1

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I would use "who are" or "which is". I think the distinction here is

  • use "who are" if you want to refer to the audience as multiple people, or

  • use "which is" if you want to refer to the audience as a singular thing.

In practice, I believe these are both used.

Liam
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