Should You Use “Who” Instead of “That” for People?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, I’m Kathy. I’m calling from Bethlehem.

Hello, Kathy. How are you doing?

I’d like to ask you about the use of who versus that.

To me, it feels like fingernails scratching a blackboard when I hear statements such as the local politician that serves on the committee or we believe it was the grocer that called in the report.

And I’ve always thought that in statements like this, the politician and the grocer should be referred to as who and not that.

But recently I’ve been hearing it all the time, like in real life on news reports or interviews, and now I’m beginning to think that I was wrong.

Kathy, I don’t think you’re wrong at all, and I feel the same way.

I get emails from people saying thanks for everybody that came out over the weekend to this or that event.

It grates on me.

My husband is a professor, and he has term papers that he grades, and we’ve seen it occur a lot on that also, which made me think, well, doesn’t GrammarCheck pick up on that?

Not that Word would be the be-all and end-all, but so I tried it, and I typed in a couple of things like that, even using proper names, and it accepts both.

Well, I would say that traditionally there has been a slight preference for who over that in that case.

I think that’s changing, though, Grant, in terms of standard grammar.

I think that a lot of your standard grammars will tell you that that is okay.

But for me personally, Kathy, I just think it’s this subtle thing.

I think words matter and that there’s a little bit of recognition of somebody’s humanity if you’re using the word who.

I agree with both of you completely, which is although you’re right, Martha, all the style guides that I have, I know they say that that is generally accepted as okay.

Even among sticklers and some of the most conservative sources.

In my own writing, I like who.

And I like who because, as Martha said, it points out the humanity of the people that I’m talking about.

I don’t want to turn them into commodities.

I don’t want to make them seem like units or numbers or widgets.

They’re human beings with thoughts and feelings, and the word who is a small part of giving them that recognition.

What do you think about that, Kathy?

I don’t know.

I just always thought that that was the way it had to be, and I’m truly surprised that that is acceptable.

But I’ll get used to it.

Well, I always say, you know, as long as your own writing is in order and you can overlook or just accept what other people have to say, then you’re going to find yourself more comfortable.

Oh, sure.

It’s hard to control the writing of others.

Well, Kathy, I have to say that I do appreciate people like you who use who for people.

And, you know, it’s interesting, too, that the traditional rule incorporates animals as well.

Really? Isn’t that interesting? Didn’t none know that.

Yeah.

I appreciate your show so much.

I really enjoy it.

It’s a new discovery for me, these last few episodes, and I will be a regular listener.

It’s great.

Hey, that’s fantastic.

Stay tuned.

There’s lots more to come.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Bye-bye, Kathy.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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