Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
You use ~ in questions when there are two or more possible answers or alternatives.
Which do they want me to do, declare war or surrender?...
Which are the ones you really like?...
‘You go down that passageway over there.’—‘Which one?’...
Which vitamin supplements are good value?
QUEST
2.
You use ~ to refer to a choice between two or more possible answers or alternatives.
I wanted to know ~ school it was you went to...
Scientists have long wondered ~ parts of the brain are involved in musical tasks.
DET
•
Which is also a conjunction.
In her panic she couldn’t remember ~ was Mr Grainger’s cabin...
There are so many diets on the market, how do you know ~ to choose?
CONJ
3.
You use ~ at the beginning of a relative clause when specifying the thing that you are talking about or when giving more information about it.
Soldiers opened fire on a car ~ failed to stop at an army checkpoint...
He’s based in Banja Luka, ~ is the largest city in northern Bosnia...
Colic describes a whole variety of conditions in ~ a horse suffers abdominal pain...
PRON
4.
You use ~ to refer back to an idea or situation expressed in a previous sentence or sentences, especially when you want to give your opinion about it.
Since we started in September we have raised fifty thousand pounds, ~ is pretty good going...
PRON
•
Which is also a determiner.
The chances are you haven’t fully decided what you want from your career at the moment, in ~ case you’re definitely not cut out to be a boss yet!
DET: DET sing-n
5.
If you cannot tell the difference between two things, you can say that you do not know ~ is ~.
They all look so alike to me that I’m never sure ~ is ~...
PHRASE: V inflects
6.
any ~ way: see way
every ~ way: see way