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Discussion Groups / English Usage / April 2010Which is correct?
A student whom I am taking a visceral dislike to. Or A student about whom I am taking a visceral dislike. > A student whom I am taking a visceral dislike to. > > Or > > A student about whom I am taking a visceral dislike. A student to whom I am taking a visceral dislike.  SignatureCordially, Eric Walker, Owlcroft House http://owlcroft.com/english/ > A student whom I am taking a visceral dislike to. > > Or > > A student about whom I am taking a visceral dislike. Both sound very artificial (as does Eric Walker's version). (Does anyone really speak like that?) I'd say "a student that I'm taking a visceral dislike to". However, people who believe in two myths about English (that "that" can't refer to a person, and that you can't end a sentence with a preposition) will not like this. Also I think "I've taken" would be better than "I'm taking" as it's not likely to be visceral in its early stages. Signatureathel > > A student whom I am taking a visceral dislike to. > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > taken" would be better than "I'm taking" as it's not likely to be > visceral in its early stages. Can't you simply say "a student I'm taking a visceral dislike to"? Or "a student to whom I'm taking a visceral dislike". Actually, it would make more sense to say "a student to whom I've taken a visceral dislike", since if the dislike takes all that much time to develop, it can hardly be very visceral. >> On 2010-04-28 05:51:42 +0200, "nickra...@gmail.com" <nickr...@gmail.com> > said: [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > Can't you simply say "a student I'm taking a visceral dislike to"? Yes > Or "a student to whom I'm taking a visceral dislike". OK. But "to whom" is clumsy. > Actually, it would make more sense to say "a student to whom I've > taken a visceral dislike", since if the dislike takes all that much > time to develop, it can hardly be very visceral. I thought I'd already made that point in the part of my message that you clipped. Signatureathel [...] > OK. But "to whom" is clumsy. . . . Oh? To be sure, sentences can be ended with prepositions, and there are times when so ending them is pretty well unavoidable, as in Winston Churchill's famous example. But it is widely held that when it is simple and convenient to avoid shoving the preposition (note the "pre" part there) to the end, it is notably more felicitous--not less--to keep it in its more usual position. Mais chacun a son gout . . . . SignatureCordially, Eric Walker, Owlcroft House http://owlcroft.com/english/ |
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