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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > Problem "OF WHOM SOME" structure! Please help!:)
Problem "OF WHOM SOME" structure! Please help!:)
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mad_rdg
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Problem "OF WHOM SOME" structure! Please help!:)
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The patients, ________ had spent the night outside, were desperate.
a) of whom some
b) wich
c) some of wich
d) some of who
I choosed "d" but the correct answer is "a"- of whom some...
It �s the first time I �ve found this tipe of "inversion", and I picked the wrong answer as I didn �t know about this "relative structure"... Could you explain why the correct answer is "a" and could you help me with some theory regarding this tricky structures?!? Thank you!
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2 Jun 2010
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magneto
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I �ve never seen this type of inversion, either, but it doesn �t sound wrong. The answer I would have thought of as perfect would be "some of whom", but, since it isn �t one of the options, (a) looks correct.
I don �t know why the clause is inverted, but I would choose (a) because of the "whom" bit - "of" needs "whom", it �s a preposition which needs an "object", so to speak.
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2 Jun 2010
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Zora
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Hi there,
I have seen and heard of this inversion but it is really not all that common nowadays. In fact, it sounds like "old" English to me and I would suspect that whoever fashioned the question used this construction on purpose to either - show off - or fool the people taking the exam or doing the activity.
I would have picked, if given the choice, "some of whom"... but as this was not an option; I would have then picked option "a" just because it was the only one close enough to the "some of whom" answer.
Also, "who" could have been a correct answer too but as it was not offered, the only possible choice was "a".
Now the reasoning:
Some of whom - means not all of them, only a few... and it is the same idea as "some of them" instead of "some of they" (which is wrong) - whom is the object and who is the subject...
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2 Jun 2010
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yanogator
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I agree completely with Linda (Zora). "Some of whom" is very common, but "of whom some" is definitely correct.
Bruce |
2 Jun 2010
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aquarius_gr
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I can confirm, very uncommon but correct.
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3 Jun 2010
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