it

[navi]

Are these sentences correct:

1-The match it was a pleasure to watch was the one on Monday.
2-That was a match which it was a pleasure to watch.


3-The man it was difficult to teach English to is here.
3-He was the man to whom it was difficult to teach English.

[Pete]

Are these sentences correct:

1-The match it was a pleasure to watch was the one on Monday.
2-That was a match which it was a pleasure to watch.


3-The man it was difficult to teach English to is here.
3-He was the man to whom it was difficult to teach English.
1-The match it was a pleasure to watch was the one on Monday. [This is OK but it sounds a bit awkward. You'd more likely hear it with "that" used instead of "it". Even more likely: "It was a pleasure to watch the match on Monday."]
2-That was a match which it was a pleasure to watch. [Not wrong, but again, I think someone more likely would say, "That was a match that was a pleasure to watch", or even more likely, "That match was a pleasure to watch."]

3-The man it was difficult to teach English to is here. [OK, but see below.]
4-He was the man to whom it was difficult to teach English. [OK, but see below.]
-- Even though they are correct, both 3 and 4 sound awkward. I think the problem is that with the required word order for a relative clause, the object has to come so far before the verb that you almost get lost waiting to see how the relative pronoun fits into the sentence. In most circumstances, you would say it in an entirely different way:

3a - There was a man here a while ago, and it was hard to teach him English. Now he's here again.
4a - A man was here, and we had trouble teaching him English. That's the man.