GMAT Ninja SC Ep 7: Modifiers: That, Which & Friends

[@mounjayansaha4750]

Someone nominate team ninja for the Nobel peace prize for all the amazing work that they do.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

❤❤❤

[@aaryayadav9805]

This is amazing! Thank you team Ninja :) An honest request from my end, although I know that new episodes premiere every Friday, it would be awesome to view those a little earlier, I believe there are 18. When I say that, I talk on behalf of not just me but many GMAT takers who are scheduled to take it this and next month, it's the peak season! perhaps, 2 episodes per week will save us! I hope my request is taken into consideration :) Best, Aarya

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you so much for this, Aarya! A few other students have asked us to speed up the publishing schedule, too. We're posting these as we film them, but I'll discuss the schedule with the rest of the team -- no promises, but we'll speed 'em up if we can without compromising quality. We also have a large pile of older SC videos available here: www.gmatninja.com/videos/gmat/verbal. We're producing the current series in a different style, but hopefully the old videos will work if you need to learn something ASAP. I hope that helps a bit, and thank you again for the kind words!

[@aaryayadav9805]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring Thank you for replying, truly appreciate it!

[@okko5619]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring Charles B. is the real Global Authority on GMAT Training. I PLEAD YOU PLEASE RELEASE ALL REMAINING SC EPISODES WITH YOU ON CAMERA!! (GMATNinja Team please let him know!)🤝

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

@@okko5619 Haha, you're too kind! I don't plan to be on camera personally for too many more of these -- everybody at GMAT Ninja is tired of my face, including myself. ;) But you'll see me again for one or two of them, along with some CR, RC, and GRE videos once we've finished producing the SC series. Enjoy, and have fun studying! - Charles

[@ok8778]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring Thanks Man! If the team finds it convenient to premiere 2 videos a week then that's gonna be a boon for quite a few guys.

[@ianmutch788]

I 100% would've gotten the last one wrong if I did not see this video. Great work guys!

[@alexcotton1180]

Thank you for the support -- so glad you enjoyed the video!

[@md.ahadjahinsarker5090]

Hello 19:29, I have a confusion there. As hope and possibility is adjoined with conjunction, they both can modify the word success. Like if we say, hope for success and possibility for success, then that can refer only success. Thus making option B more viable. Why this is wrong?

[@PhenomX1998HD]

EXACTLY the same doubt.

[@ArjunKumar-lt8jd]

Because it says "hope and possibility for success" , two things joined by 'and' then use plural form. Come is plural.

[@sim5737]

Hi Bransen, thanks very much for the wonderful explanation! This was super helpful :) Couldn't expect any less from GMAT Ninja!

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you again for the kind words, Sim! Glad to hear that we could help a bit.

[@vaibhav.nagvan]

Hi Bransen, I have a doubt in Basic Example 2: As you mentioned, the Steve jobs personified hope, but what kind of hope. But I think as Hope & possibility are parallel, can't we say that Steve Jobs personifies the hope for sucess and Steve jobs personified the possibility for success, then "comes" would make sense as it is now referring to success?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Vaibhav! The question is: what, exactly, comes with dropping out of college? Do hope and possibility come with dropping out of college? Or does success come with dropping out of college? It seems like a stretch to say that success comes with dropping out of college -- success is far from guaranteed for dropouts, right? But it is fair to say that hope and possibility come with dropping out of college. I hope that helps a bit!

[@abhijitdeb3369]

Hi Bransen, Great work! Many thanks to you and to everyone at GMAT Ninja for putting out these lessons for us! I have a doubt in example 2. Since we have "the" preceding "hope and possibility for success", it could refer to "hope and possibility for success" as one entity and thus make it singular. Wouldn't this point towards choosing "comes" over "come"? If it were not meant to be taken as one entity, wouldn't the writer rather say "the hope and the possibility for success"?

[@SAUPAYANMAZUMDAR]

Hi GMATNinja, If I heard that correctly, in example question 4, if the sentence didn't contain "unconscious", options B and E could be correct?? I eliminated them on the basis "the original sentence is saying emotional responses is responsible for creating, not individuals. these sentences change the meaning, irrespective of unconscious or not". Is that fallacious reasoning?

[@raphaelelcamino6087]

17:24 so how can we know the intended meaning, cause it can be both hope and possibility or the success

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Raphael! We actually try not to think about "intended" meaning because we can't really ever know what the author of the sentence is thinking. But we do look to end up with a sentence that produces a logical meaning. The problem is that if we say it should be "comes," then the meaning produced by the sentence is that Steve Jobs personifies the possibility for success that comes with dropping out of college and the hope. But what hope? It seems kind of odd to say that Steve Jobs personifies "the hope," so we need the answer choice with the plural verb "come." Then, the idea is that Steve Jobs personifies the possibility for success that comes with dropping out of college and the hope that comes with dropping out of college. And that makes a lot more sense!

[@PhenomX1998HD]

Hi, I have a query in basic example 2, why cant we break this into 2 parallel parts given hope an success are parallel nouns here and our stem ends at the making sentennce "Many college students....the hope for success that comes with dropping out of college and the possibility of success that comes with dropping out of college" and why cant "success" be modified w that, both these logics direct me towards option B

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi! This is a great question! It's one of those situations where you have to focus on the wider context and avoid getting TOO mechanical. Consider the following sentence: "Tim and his horse are racing towards the finish line." There's definitely more than one thing racing toward the finish line, so we need to say they ARE racing -- in other words, we have a plural subject here. However, if we're too mechanical with the parallelism and break it up like a robot, we'd end up with: "Tim are racing towards the finish line" or "his horse are racing towards the finish line." Neither of these fragments makes any sense but the original sentence is fine -- you can't be TOO strict when you check the parallelism. You have to keep the context of the overall sentence in mind. Your suggestion does the opposite of what we see in the example above. If we split the sentence up in the way you're suggesting, each part of the parallelism makes sense but it doesn't work as a whole. This is because there are two things that *come* with dropping out of college: the hope AND the possibility of success. With this way of looking at it, we'd have to use "come" rather than "comes," even though "comes" makes sense when you look at each half of the parallelism individually. Alternatively, you could say that "success" is modified by "that". This means that the second part of the sentence will say: "Many college students believe that Steve Jobs personifies the possibility for success that comes with dropping out of college." This part is fine -- there's no problem here at all. However, the problem is that now the other part of the parallelism reads as follows: "Many college students believe that Steve Jobs personifies the hope." Now we have to ask: the hope of what? Standing alone, this part of the sentence doesn't make sense. It makes muce more sense for the "that" to modify both the success and the hope, which is what we see in answer choice (A). For both of these reasons, answer choice (A) is a better answer to this question than answer choice (B). I hope that helps!

[@SPARSHGANJOO]

Can you pls explain the difference between who and whom , that and those? I thought that is used to refer to a singular noun and those is used to refer to plural nouns, which doesn't seem to be the case in Basic example 2. Kindly clarify.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

You’re right that we can use “that” and “those” as pronouns, and "that" is singular and "those" is plural when they're used as pronouns. But “that” can also function as a modifier, an article, or the beginning of a subordinate clause. For more on that, check out this article: shorturl.at/afruT. As for “who” vs “whom”, the short answer is that “who” is used for subjects and “whom” is used for objects, but "who" and "whom" can be either singular or plural. For more on that, check out this post: shorturl.at/cpqX0.

[@maxsparrowX]

Hi Brenson, I just want to confirm 1 thing: does the modifier modifies the closest word or not? I think I heard you said it is not but most of the explanations from the examples do use this reasoning

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Whenever you're evaluating the use of a modifier such as "that" or "which" -- relative pronouns, if you like the jargon -- the only question you want to ask yourself is whether the modifier is reasonably close to what it could logically describe. Also, if the "that" or "which" in question is the subject of a verb, that verb will offer a clue about whether the described noun should be singular or plural. For example: The box of records, WHICH IS missing two flaps and is riddled with toddler teeth marks, has seen better days. In this example, "which" is the subject of the singular verb "is." This tells us that "which" should describe a singular noun. Here, the only singular noun that's reasonably close is "the box." And that works. The box is missing two flaps. What you wouldn't want to do here is to see that "which" is touching "records" and so conclude that "which" is incorrect, because records don't have flaps. Put another way, *there is no such thing* as a touch rule. All we need is a viable interpretation based on context clues, and we have that here. For an example of an official question that demonstrates this, check out the link below. I hope that helps! gmatclub.com/forum/the-use-of-lie-detectors-is-based-on-the-assumption-that-lying-produce-83581.html

[@maxsparrowX]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring ohh, okay... I think I got the message, thanks a lot Ninja

[@ArjunKumar-lt8jd]

"Malayan Tapir" Love your effort to look up for the right pronunciation

[@GRENinjaTutoring]

Thank you! We always strive for accuracy :)

[@ashishsinha9035]

Thanks GMAT Ninja and Branson! My stat 3 correct, 1 wrong.

[@UtkarshSingh-qc8dy]

Hi GMAT Ninja, firstly thanks a lot for creating such structured valuable content on Sentence correction. I had a doubt in Ques 2: I am not clear why are we eliminating option B? The whole sentence is written in singular form (is based, produces) then the word create should also be in it's singular form creates, right?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Utkarsh! The question is what is doing the "creating." In this instance, the emotional reactions are doing the "creating," and because "emotional reactions" is a plural term, the corresponding verb should also be plural. I hope that helps!

[@vishesh_raina]

19:16 the grand, big HOPE 😂😂

[@chaus0808]

Thank you for the content. I have a doubt in Que 1: Isn't there a problem around conjunction "and"? Like product demonstrators and publicists doesn't mean the same as product demonstrators and product publicists (or as in sentence demonstrators and publicists of their products), right? So based on this we can say option A, B, C are wrong, since they are not clearly mentioning what the women were? Why is this issue not considered?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Chaus! It's actually okay to describe the women as being "employed by manufacturers and utility companies as... publicists." There's no reason that we would have to specify that they're "product publicists," so we still don't have an error in (A). I hope that helps!

[@MeenalDudani]

HI Thanks for the video. I had a doubt in the last question, why did we not consider "that" in option B to modify lying. lying..... in turn, creates unconscious physiological response?

[@GRENinjaTutoring]

Good question! In general, "that" and "which" should be touching (or at least close to) the word they are modifying. In (B), "that" is much closer to "individual" than "lying," so the most reasonable interpretation is "that" is referring to "individual." Since this doesn't fit the meaning of the sentence, we can eliminate (B). I hope that helps!

[@sachindrabb]

Hi.. Thank you for the amazing video. One doubt in Option A since both "the hope " and "possibility of success" are being represented by a pronoun , why was "Those" not used instead of "that" to make it plural?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Sachindra, The "that" you're referring to in that question is not being used as a pronoun, it's being used to introduce the modifier "come with dropping out of college." There's no need to change a "that" to a "those" when using "that" to introduce a modifier or modifying clause, even if you're modifying a plural noun. For more on how "that" is used in GMAT Sentence Correction, see the article linked below. I hope that helps! gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topic-of-the-week-6-26-17-wtf-is-that-doing-in-my-sentence-243686.html

[@sachindrabb]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring Thank you so much for the reply. You guys are the best

[@aryamansingh2544]

Hey, thanks for the video. Had a doubt - how do I know when is that acting as a modifier?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Aryaman, This is a tough question because it all depends on the context and the placement of the "that." For an in-depth look at how the GMAT uses "that" in a sentence, check out the article linked below. I hope that helps, but please come back with more questions if the article doesn't resolve your doubt. gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topic-of-the-week-6-26-17-wtf-is-that-doing-in-my-sentence-243686.html

[@avinashmehrotra5243]

I know it's an advice early on in the first video to not form rules. However, clearly in case of modifiers, the modifier modifies the thing closest to it and not the things previously mentioned in the sentence, perhaps it's better to accept the rule rather than just saying 'I don't like the idea' or 'I don't love it' or 'looking for the best version of the sentence'. . .ideally there should be no gut, only logic. . .

[@rickyflintoff2406]

Thank you for the video. I have a couple of questions. 1. Is the sentence, "The zoo that houses animals from every continent, which is open to the public, is closed on Sundays," correct? In this case, won't the set of words after "which" modify zoo? 2. Can't you say that "the hope and possibility for success" is a compound subject?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Ricky! As far as your first question goes, the sentence that you quote is less than ideal. It seems like “which” modifies “every continent,” and that doesn’t produce a logically sound sentence. So, if given the option between the placement of “which” after “zoo” and the placement of “which” after “every continent,” we definitely prefer the former. For your second question, “the hope and possibility for success” is a compound subject. But a compound subject joined by the word “and” takes a plural verb. I hope that helps!

[@srilanka739]

btw - can who refers to non human entities such as manufacturers and utility companies?

[@sahilbisht1875]

I have a query!! how are we going to identify when which and that are modifying? And thank you so much for making my life easy with Verbal section

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Sahil! "Which" is pretty much always going to serve as a modifier, but "that" is a little bit more complicated. Maybe check out this article for further clarification about "that": gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topic-of-the-week-6-26-17-wtf-is-that-doing-in-my-sentence-243686.html?sid=17ebf58beadb548d707ed04de7344b62#p1879038 I hope that helps!

[@kanikamalhotra818]

Around 7:30, shouldn't it be "One of the animals that are black and white..." not is because One of the + pronoun has a plural verb?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

This is one of those examples that can go both ways. Consider the following sentence: "One of the ANIMALS that ARE black and white is the Malayan tapir." In this case, the modifier following the word 'that' has a plural verb so we can say it modifies the plural noun 'animals.' However, consider the next sentence: "ONE of the animals that IS black and white is the Malayan tapir." This time, the modifier following the word 'that' has a singular verb, so we can say it modifies the singular noun 'One of the...' Both sentences are fine, but the modifier is acting on a different noun in the sentence each time. The point of using this example is to show that when the word 'that' introduces a modifier, it doesn't have to be directly touching the noun being modified. In some cases, such as this one, it can modify a noun a few words before it. All you can do is examine the modifier in the context of the sentence to see if it makes sense. I hope that helps!

[@kanikamalhotra818]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring Thank you :)

[@AbhinaySingh-z7f]

Thanks folkk. This was great. But I have a question here: In the example 2 why can't "the hope and possibility for success" could be one entity as singular and make the option B correct?

[@GRENinjaTutoring]

Great question! Generally speaking, if two nouns are connected by the word "and," you'll want to consider that a plural subject.

[@ritingupta2323]

At 7.12 the example explained has an error ... after that ... we must use plural verb ... usage of' is ' is wrong ... pls correct me if I am wrong...

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Ritin! It’s not the case that “that” has to be followed by a plural verb. We need to look at what the subject of the verb “is” is. In this case, what is black and white and is the Malayan tapir? In this instance, “ONE of the best animals” is black and white and is the Malayan tapir. Because we’re talking about ONE of the best animals, we use the singular verb “is.” I hope that helps!

[@ritingupta2323]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring One of the best animals that "ARE " black and white at the zoo is the Malayan tapir......in my above-mentioned doubt. Isnt "Are" refers to the best animals?

[@asadmuxiddinov7918]

@@ritingupta2323having the same confusion. Would be great if @GMATNinjaTutoring brings more explanation here 😊

[@FalconZ-TR]

How can we actually know that an individual or emotional reaction create unconscious responses? Is there any other clue to eliminate A and E ?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Tanchat! The meaning issue is probably the best way to make the elimination. If an individual were to create unconscious responses, then the responses would, by definition, not be unconscious. So, by default, it has to be the emotional reactions that create unconscious responses.

[@namangupta3621]

From what I understand from example 2, a "that" modifier can modify 2 things in a list. So can we say that when multiple things are mentioned in a sentence in the form of a list, a "that" modifier can possibly function to modify all the items in our list? I guess that is not true for a "which" modifier. (Or is it?) Also, can there be a case in which a "that" modifier modifies only one item, amongst many, in a list? That could potentially make the verb singular.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Naman! You are correct that a "that modifier" can modify multiple things. Consider the following example: "He went to the store to buy the steak, pizza, and cheesecake that were requested by his brother." This sentence is perfectly fine, and "that" modifies "steak, pizza, and cheesecake." But I could also say: "He went to the store to buy the steak, pizza, and cheesecake, which were requested by his brother." Here, "which" modifies "steak, pizza, and cheesecake," and there's nothing wrong with the sentence. It's also clear in both of the above that the subject's brother requested steak, pizza, and cheesecake and that he did not just request the cheesecake. On the contrary, it's also possible for "that" to modify only one item in a list. Consider: "He went to the store to buy the steak, pizza, and cheesecake, which was requested by his brother." In this instance, the verb "was" indicates that the cheesecake, and not the two other items, was requested by the subject's brother. I hope that helps!

[@namangupta3621]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring Thanks for your reply but the explanation has stirred up another doubt in my mind. In the example " He went to the store to buy the steak, pizza, and cheesecake, which were/was requested by his brother" , the use of was/were tells us what is being modified. A list or a particular item. What if we are given both as 2 options. For example : A) He went to the store to buy the steak, pizza, and cheesecake, which WAS requested by his brother. B) He went to the store to buy the steak, pizza, and cheesecake, which WERE requested by his brother. How do I choose between the 2? I cannot assume the context. Since you said that both are logically correct, how do we make a choice here? I do not know if just the cheesecake or all the things were requested.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

@@namangupta3621 The short answer is that you probably wouldn’t have to choose between those two sentences on the GMAT. Both of those would produce logically sound sentences, and it’s very unlikely that you’d be given both as options on the GMAT, unless there were an error elsewhere in the sentence. After all, we're not mind-readers: in your example, how can we possibly know whether the brother requested JUST the cheesecake, or all three items? Consider the following example: gmatclub.com/forum/unlike-the-virginal-whose-single-set-of-strings-runs-parallel-to-the-242375.html?sid=f83b397a7b764d5a5e59f80946248967#p1867859 In that example, we could say that the set RUNS parallel or that the strings RUN parallel. We actually have both as options in the answer choices, but the decision point is a comparison issue elsewhere in the sentence. We cover that question in detail in our Comparisons I video (question 1 in that video) on this channel if you’re interested in looking into it further. So, you wouldn’t really be expected to assume that one or the other is correct. Often, the GMAT will require you to eliminate an answer because it produces a sentence that's illogical. But it’s very unlikely that the GMAT would ask you to choose between two sentences that are both logical and grammatically sound because, as you said, that would be a very difficult choice, if not an impossible one. I hope that helps!

[@prishtagrover9553]

Hi GMATNinja! Thank you for these super resourceful videos. In the last question, why is 'that' better than 'creating' (option A vs. C)?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Prishta! Glad the videos have been helpful! When we say "that... create," it's clear that "that" refers to a plural. And the only plural that is reasonably close by is "emotional reactions," so we know what "that" references. On the other hand, "creating" could refer to either "an individual" or maybe "emotional reactions," but at best, it's ambiguous. When given the choice between ambiguity and clarity, we'll go with the clarity that's found in (A).

[@abhishekgihar-di9no]

Hi Gmat Ninja! Thanks for the resourceful videos. Aligning with @Prishta's doubt. Why are we considering "that create" rather than just "that" which can only refer to singular noun? since we already know "emotional reactions" being plural is the only logical choice to fit the position of "that" aligning with "create" being plural in the sentence. Henceforth, shounldn't the "that" be replaced by "those" being plural and correctly aliging with"emotional reactions"? AND since we do not have "those as an option". Option C should be a better choice over option A. Thanks! Do take some time to evaluate my doubt😄.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Abhishek! "That" doesn't have to refer to a plural. For instance, consider the following sentence: "I enjoy traveling to countries that have good food." In this sentence, "that" refers to the plural "countries," and the corresponding verb ("have") is plural.

[@abhishekgihar-di9no]

Hi@@GMATNinjaTutoring . Thank you! for the explanation. I now understand the usage of "that" more accurately.

[@marccepeci2980]

Steve Jobs personifies the hope and possibility for success THAT COMES with dropping out of college. Why can't that modify Steve Jobs which is singular -- The sentence is Referring to Steve Jobs that dropped out of college (Not many students).

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Marc! If "that" refers to Steve Jobs, then we'd be saying that Steve Jobs comes with dropping out of college. It would make sense to say that Steve Jobs dropped out of college. But it doesn't make sense to say that Steve Jobs comes with dropping out of college. I hope that helps!

[@marccepeci2980]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring Also, that must also modify the nearest noun and not the subject of the sentence? Is that correct?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

As we stated in the video, "that" doesn't necessarily modify the nearest noun. For example, in the sentence that you reference above, "success" is the nearest noun, and "that" does not modify success (it modifies "hope and possibility for success"). In some instances, "that" could modify the subject of the sentence. Consider: "The chair that is in the room is black." Here, "the chair" is the subject of the sentence, and "that" modifies "the chair." Really, we're just looking for a nearby noun that "that" could modify. And we want to know whether the placement of "that" produces a sentence with a clear and logical meaning. I hope that helps!

[@viswanathsubramani8894]

In q1, why is C not chosen and why A?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

The key to this question is the 'who' just after the underlined portion. Bransen explains how to use that 'who' in this question starting from 22:20. Check that section of the video out and let us know if you have any further questions. I hope that helps!

[@viswanathsubramani8894]

​@@GMATNinjaTutoringgot it. Thanks

[@infinityalif1896]

The instructor kinda hates that he can't eliminate options using other concept except that, which modifiers. He clearly doesn't like an option for other reasons but has to stick to that, which and friends modifiers. That subtle frustration is evident. 😂

[@lakshaygupta5818]

How is create a plural ? @gmat ninja tutoring

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Hi Lakshay! I'm not quite sure that I understand what you're asking, but "create" is the plural form of the verb. We would say, "they create statues." But if we wanted to use the singular form of the verb, we would say "he creates statues." Does that make sense?