Prepositions and quantifiers in relative clauses

Prepositions in relative clauses

In informal situations, prepositions can be placed at the end  of

relative clauses:

That’s the woman (who/that) he fell in love with.

I don’t remember the name of the man (who/that) I talked to.

This is Mr Carter, who I was telling you about.

Is that the lever (which/that) you start the machine with?

In formal English, we tend to place the preposition  before the

relative pronoun:

That’s the woman with whom he fell in love.

I don’t remember the name of the man to whom I talked.

This is Mr Carter, about whom I was telling you.

Is that the lever with which you start the machine?

As you can see in the previous examples, the

pronoun “which”  stays the same with the preposition before or
after it, but the pronoun  “who”is changed to “whom” if there is
a preposition before it.

Quantity in relative clauses

These pronouns can also be used in conjunction with the following

phrases to indicate quantity, number, or amount:

All of +  whom (people)

Most of
Most of +  which (things)
Many of
Some of
Few of
Both of
Half of          
None of          
Neither of
Any of
Either of
One of
Two of (etc.)

Most of the students in the class were hungry.

There were thirty students in the class, most of whom were

hungry.

I had never seen either of the two women who came to visit

me in hospital.

When I was in hospital, two women, neither of whom I had

never seen before, came to visit me.

None of the five dresses (which/that) Debbie tried on fitted her.

Debbie tried on five dresses, none of which fitted her.

Half of Sharon's four sisters are married.

Sharon has four sisters, half of whom are married.