grammar · neutral

preposition + whom/which (formal) / ... + ... + preposition-at-end (informal)

Band 4-5task2speaking

Formal: preposition + whom/which; Informal: relative pronoun at clause end with preposition.

Examples

“The person to whom I spoke gave helpful advice.”

“The person I spoke to gave helpful advice.”

“The topic about which we argued was complex.”

Band 8 sentence

“The committee, to which several amendments were proposed, eventually accepted the revised policy.”

Common mistakes

luôn dùng 'who' sau giới từ→dùng whom sau giới từ trong văn viết trang trọng; who thường thay whom trong văn nói

không đặt giới từ ở đầu khi cần trang trọng→đặt giới từ trước whom/which để trang trọng

Say it for a higher band

5use 'who' after preposition (colloquial)→6put preposition at the end '... whom/which + preposition-at-end'→7+preposition + whom/which (formal) / ... + ... + preposition-at-end (informal)

Easily confused

whom vs who

“The person to whom I gave the book was grateful.”

Related words

defining vs non-defining relative clauses (use of commas and that/which/who), who + Vthe + superlative + N + (that) + S + Veach of whom + V, which is why + S + VIndefinite pronouns + who/that + V (someone/anyone/anything + who/that)the majority of + N + who + Vthose who + V

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In Relative clauses

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