on the extent to

[abre]

Hi, 👋
"the study focuses on the extent to which social media tools have displaced other forms of office communication, notably email and in-person interactions. " I have seen "to a extent" , but here on the extent to which ? i dont understand it .So if i simplify it , A study forcus on the extent to which b has done sth , what does it mean ?

Thanks a lot in advance !🙏

 

[grassy]

You could paraphrase "the extent to which" as "to what extent", i.e. whether social media tools have completely displaced those other forms or maybe only partly replaced them.

 

[abre]

So Can i say :"the study focuses on the extent to what social media tools have displaced other forms of office communication, notably email and in-person interactions."If not, what’s the difference between what and which here?

 

[grassy]

What would be wrong there.

 

[abre]

I thought if using what then it should be to what extent,if using which then there is no need for extent just which would be fine.
I don’t know if I am wrong in this way

 

[heypresto]

If you want to use 'what', then you need to rewrite the sentence as 'The study focuses on to what extent social media tools have . . . '

But the original sentence sounds a lot more likely.

 

[abre]

Thanks !

 

[idialegre]

Or just replace "the extent to which" with "how much," and the meaning is clear.

 

[abre]

Thanks so much!