Name: "WHAT" or "WHICH"? Learn how to choose!
Uploaded: 2018-04-18T13:15:54.000Z
Duration: 9 min 17 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

In the next few minutes you will learn how to ask better questions in English.

Specifically, you'll learn when to use the question word "what" and when to use the question

Yes, usually there is, and it's a very easy difference to understand once I explain it

But maybe you already know the difference, maybe you already know when to use "what"

So, do we say: "What colour do you like?" or should we say: "Which colour do you like?"

Think about that for a minute, decide something.

And here, do we say: "What colour do you prefer - red or blue?" or do we say: "Which colour

Okay, so let me tell you what we would usually say.

Here we would usually say: "What colour do you like?"

Because we're asking: "Out of all the colours in the world, what colour do you like?"

And here, we would usually say: "Which", okay?

"Which colour do you prefer - red or blue?"

So let me summarize what the difference is.

So, when we use "What", we use "What" to talk about things that are very broad or very general.

So here, we used it to talk about general questions or very wide, broad questions.

Where the number of options, the number of possibilities are unknown or very large.

"Which" is much different, it's much more specific.

So, we use "Which" when we have limited options, not wide.

We use it when we have much more limited options.

For example, here we said: "Red or blue?"

It could be three, four, it could be 10, but it's limited and not unlimited.

"What" is used when we're asking about something general, and "Which" is used when we're asking

Now, just to explain, in this one, for example, I said that the probable answer is: "What

But if I showed you a card which had four colours, and now it's limited, right?

So then I could ask you: "Which colour do you like?" because it's out of these four,

so it becomes limited and not: What colour out of all the colours in the world?

So, let's look at a few more examples so you can understand exactly how this works.

All right, so let's look at some examples in a social context, in an academic context,

So, for example, we could ask someone: "What do you want to do today?"

Out of all the things we could possibly do in this city, what do you want to do?

Or: "Which movie do you want to see - Star Wars or Batman?"

It's more specific, and that's why we used "Which".

Do you see the difference between the broad and the narrow, between the general and the

All right, academically we could ask someone: "What would you like to learn?"

Out of all the subjects in the world, what would you like to learn?

Or: "Which class do you prefer - music or art?"

Now, of course, again our choice is very limited between two.

In a business context we might ask: "What are our options?"

Out of all the different things we could do, what are our options?

This is a very common question people ask in business situations, in business meetings,

Or: "Which conference are you attending, the one in New York or in London?"

Again, a much more limited choice, and therefore we used "Which".

So, are you ready to try some on your own?

Okay, number one, let's pretend that you're on a date and you want to get to know the

other person so you ask them: "_______ kind of music do you like?"

"What", "What kind of music do you like?"

Because there are all kinds of music; we didn't limit the options.

All right, the next one, let's say you're thinking about learning how to play an instrument,

so you go to a music store and you ask the salesperson: "_______ instrument is easier

"Which". Right? "Which instrument is easier to learn - the guitar or the piano?"

Again, limited choice so we're going to say: "Which".

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"WHAT" or "WHICH"? Learn how to choose!

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