Hi everyone,

I hope you're all doing well. It's been a while since I made a pinned post, and a couple of issues have come up recently, so I thought I'd mention those and also give you a chance to bring up anything else that you think needs attention.

First, we get a lot of questions about things that fall outside of the narrowest definition of "grammar," and there are usually a fair number of comments on these posts that point this out. But the vast majority of these questions are fine! As you can see from the sub description, rules, and FAQ articles, we adhere to a pretty broad definition of "grammar," and we welcome questions about style, punctuation, vocabulary, usage, semantics, pragmatics, and other linguistic subfields (and this is not an exhaustive list).

So when commenting on posts like this, there's no need to say "This isn't about grammar" or to direct the OP to another subreddit - if the question has anything to do with language or orthography, it's probably appropriate for the sub. I remove any posts that are not, and you can also report a post if you think it really doesn't fit here.

One thing we don't do is proofread long pieces of writing (r/Proofreading is a good place for that), but we do welcome specific questions about short pieces of writing (a paragraph, a few random sentences, a piece of dialogue, etc.). And that brings me to the second issue:

We ask that commenters take into account the genre (e.g., fiction, journalism, academic writing) and register (the type of language used in a particular genre) of the writing that the poster is asking about. We get a lot of questions about creative writing, but some of the feedback given on these posts is more suited to very formal genres. For example, while you would probably advise someone to avoid sentence fragments in academic writing, these are not usually inappropriate in creative writing (used wisely, of course). Another thing to bear in mind is that punctuation conventions are generally more flexible in less formal genres. And for some genres, it may be necessary to consult an appropriate style guide in order to answer the OP's question.

So basically, please make sure to tailor your responses to the type of writing in question.

Thanks so much!

- Boglin007

Update 5/24/26: Also prohibited are posts promoting the use of AI/LLMs to aid in language learning/grammar checking, and posts asking for comparisons of AI programs/LLMs, etc.

Hi everyone,

There has been a recent increase in comments using ChatGPT or other AI programs to answer questions in this sub. Unfortunately, these programs are not at all reliable when it comes to grammar questions (or any questions really). Some regular contributors to r/grammar have discussed the shortcomings of AI programs (mostly ChatGPT) - they have given me permission to use the quotes below (but have asked to remain anonymous):

OpenAI says ChatGPT was released in order to "get users’ feedback and learn about its strengths and weaknesses." The prompt page warns users that ChatGPT "may occasionally generate incorrect information" and "may occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content.”

ChatGPT's goal is to learn to produce speech equivalent to, and indistinguishable from, that of a human. ChatGPT's current goal is not to become a reliable source of information. (If that were its goal, they would allow it to access the huge libraries of information it is connected to. But that is not the current research goal.) ー I believe they have set it to occasionally make small mistakes, intentionally, in order to assess how the public reacts to these occasional errors (does the public blindly believe them/if the public challenges ChatGPT on these errors, can the program successfully handle these challenges well?).

And here is an example of an incorrect (or at the very best, incomplete/misleading) answer that ChatGPT gave to a pretty straightforward grammar question:

The question: “Should I use ‘that’ or ‘which’ in the following sentence?: ‘This is the house that/which I like.’”

ChatGPT’s answer:

Both "that" and "which" can be used in this sentence, but the choice depends on whether the information following the word is essential or non-essential to the sentence.

If the information is essential to the sentence and needed to identify the specific house you like, use "that". For example, "This is the house that I like" implies that there are other houses and you are identifying which one you like.

If the information is non-essential and simply provides additional information about the house, use "which". For example, "This is the house, which I like" implies that there is only one house and you are adding a comment about it.

So, in this case, if you want to emphasize that this particular house is the one you like, use "that". If you want to add an additional comment about the house, use "which".

The correct/complete answer:

Both “that” and “which” are grammatically correct in that sentence as written (without a comma) because without the comma, the relative clause is integrated, and both “that” and “which” can be used in integrated relative clauses. However, “that” will be strongly preferred in American English (both “that” and “which” are used about equally in integrated relative clauses in British English).

If you were to add a comma before the relative clause (making it supplementary), only “which” would be acceptable in today’s English.

ChatGPT also fails to mention that integrated relative clauses are not always essential to the meaning of the sentence and do not always serve to identify exactly what is being talked about (though that is probably their most common use) - it can be up to the writer to decide whether to make a relative clause integrated or supplementary. A writer might decide to integrate the relative clause simply to show that they feel the info is important to the overall meaning of the sentence.

Anyway, to get to the point: Comments that quote AI programs are not permitted in this sub and will be removed. If you must use one of these programs to start your research on a certain topic, please be sure to verify (using other reliable sources) that the answer is accurate, and please write your answer in your own words.

Thank you!