Lucio
Which one is correct? "The man led the donkey, whose back the child sat on." Or "The man led the donkey, on whose back the child sat."
Apr 19, 2016 10:52 AM
Answers · 12
This is much debated! My opinion as a U.S. native speaker is that both are correct. I think the first is much more natural and is the way most native speakers would say it. They might write it the second way if they believed their writing would be edited by a pedant. The problem is that there is a grammar myth that says that a sentence should not end with a preposition. I don't know where the myth came from. Many authorities say it is acceptable, and I've never seen one that said it was unacceptable. As with the "split infinitive," the typical guideline is that "the first form is fine, but some people think that it isn't, so to avoid trouble use the second form!" A famous story says that Winston Churchill was once corrected on this and replied "This is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put."
April 19, 2016
The man led the donkey, on which sat the child. The child sat on the donkey while the man led it. The man led the donkey on which the child sat. The child sat on the donkey while the man led it.
April 19, 2016
The man led the donkey, on whose back did the child sit? or The man led the donkey, whose back did the child sit on?
April 19, 2016
from dictionary "And a horse on whose head a royal crest is set." this seems more fitting
April 20, 2016
Dear Rachel, I thank you,because every your comment help me to understand more things. Maybe the general use of "whose" refers to people but I found a lot of exceptions. How can you explain that? For example: A landscape before whose gravity and purity one feels very small. Gloria, they don't have animals whose lives depend on them. The schools, whose students were mostly immigrants, had few problems.
April 20, 2016
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