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Lucas21c Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
Relative pronoun
Could you tell me which one is okay of the following sentences? Thank you.
1A. This is the pen which I gave him.
1B. This is the pen which I gave to him.
2A. This is the man who(m) I gave the pen.
2B. This is the man who(m) I gave the pen to.
1A. This is the pen which I gave him.
1B. This is the pen which I gave to him.
2A. This is the man who(m) I gave the pen.
2B. This is the man who(m) I gave the pen to.
Top answer
The only questionable one is 2B, a mongrel form that some grammarians dislike. They say it should be one of these: This is the man to whom I gave the pen. This is the man who I gave the pen to .
- The only questionable one is 2B, a mongrel form that some grammarians dislike.
- They say it should be one of these: This is the man to whom I gave the pen.
- This is the man who I gave the pen to .
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7 Answers
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The only questionable one is 2B, a mongrel form that some grammarians dislike. They say it should be one of these:
This is the man to whom I gave the pen.
This is the man who I gave the pen to.
This is the man to whom I gave the pen.
This is the man who I gave the pen to.
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Then, are all of the following sentences possible?
1. This is the man who I gave the pen.
2. This is the man whom I gave the pen.
3. This is the man who I gave the pen to.
1. This is the man who I gave the pen.
2. This is the man whom I gave the pen.
3. This is the man who I gave the pen to.
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What do you mean by 'possible'? All are certainly in use. Different grammarians have different levels of strictness.
I myself always say 'This is the man I gave the pen to'.
I myself always say 'This is the man I gave the pen to'.
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What I mean by 'possible' is 'okay' or 'right'. I just wanted to use another word instead of them. If 'possible' is not proper, please forgive my wording.
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If you want to be sure to be 'right', use what I just gave you in my last post for conversation, and when you write, use 'the man to whom I gave the pen'.
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I see. Thank you for your help. By the way, I have another question. If an indirect object of a relative clause is not a person, is the structure like 2A, "This is the man who I gave the pen," right? For example, "This is the recycle center which people sell reusable household goods at low prices to preserve the environment" is okay? Or, should it be "This is the rec
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That structure suffers the same limitations I have indicated above.
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