Hi guys. In this sentence, the right answer is B. But D will be corrected if it has "that" behind it. Why does it need to have "that" to be correct? Can someone explain? Thank you.

A buffet dinner is available to the guests, so they may eat ------- looks appetizing to them without having to place an order.
A. anyway
B. whatever
C. wherever
D. anything

Question

Hi guys. In this sentence, the right answer is B. But D will be corrected if it has "that" behind it. Why does it need to have "that" to be correct? Can someone explain? Thank you.

A buffet dinner is available to the guests, so they may eat ------- looks appetizing to them without having to place an order.
A. anyway
B. whatever
C. wherever
D. anything

Answer

You're right — the correct answer is B. whatever. Here's why "whatever" works and why "anything" would need "that" to be correct:

In this sentence, you're choosing the right word to introduce a noun clause — specifically, a clause acting as the object of the verb "eat." The phrase should mean: "eat anything that looks appetizing to them."

"Whatever" is a compound word that already includes the meaning of "anything that." So, "eat whatever looks appetizing to them" is correct and natural.

"Anything", on its own, is just a pronoun. If you say "eat anything looks appetizing", it's grammatically incorrect because "anything" can't directly introduce a clause with a verb ("looks") without a connector.

To fix it, you'd need to say:
"eat anything that looks appetizing to them."

So, "whatever" works alone, but "anything" needs "that" (or "which") to connect the rest of the clause. That’s the key difference

Đừng bỏ lỡ cơ hội học ngoại ngữ ngay tại nhà. Hãy xem danh sách các gia sư ngôn ngữ giàu kinh nghiệm của chúng tôi và đăng ký buổi học đầu tiên ngay hôm nay!