What's the difference between the two sentences below? or is either incorrect?
A - > The way which you chose was good.
B - > The way in which you chose was good.
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'The way you chose was good' means 'You made a good choice of how to proceed'. // 'The way in which you chose was good' means 'You did well to choose in that situation [when you could have ducked the issue / allowed someone less sensible to choose]' or (but this is less likely) 'The manner of your putting your choice across was admirable'. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 19 '17 at 14:10
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1A - > The way which you chose was good describes the content, ie the choice you made. It doesn't need - in fact, it suffers from - which. It would be better phrased simply The way you chose… but since that's ambiguous, it would need to be clarified as The way chosen… B - > The way in which you chose was good refers solely to the process of choosing, not in any way to the choice. – Robbie Goodwin Sep 4 '17 at 21:46
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1To make it easier to grasp: “The way which you chose” = what you chose. “The way in which you chose” = how you chose. Neither is very natural-sounding as worded. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Sep 20 '17 at 7:07
Let me rephrase, this will make it clearer:
A - > The way which you chose was good. - > You chose a way.
This focuses on what you chose.
"Way" can be literal (choosing which road to take during a journey) or figurative (choosing how to proceed with a plan), but the key thing to remember here is that you chose a way.
B - > The way in which you chose was good. - > You chose in a way.
This focuses on your how you made the choice.
"In a way" means "in a certain manner".
It doesn't tell you anything about what the choice was. You could've been choosing a meal, your favorite color, or what shoes to wear.
The key thing to remember here is that you chose (something) in a certain way.
Examples
- Consider the example of picking whether to wear blue or red socks today. You make a clever choice, and I remark:
The way in which you chose was really clever!
- Consider the example of having to pick which road you take to work. You make a choice, and we end up avoiding traffic jams.
The way you chose had no traffic jams!
- (Combining the two) Consider the example of having to pick which road you take to work, in order to avoid traffic jams. You make a clever choice, and I make two remarks:
- The way you chose had no traffic jams!
- The way in which you chose to take this route was really clever!
Can you see the difference between them now?
- focuses on what you chose. The route to work was good.
- focuses on how you made the choice. Your method (of choosing the route to work) was good.
A: Good is an adjective describing the way, for example the method, approach, or route.
B: The process was good, i.e. the way you went about making your choice.
answered Aug 21 '17 at 6:04
