relatives

[hela]

Dear teachers,

Are all of the following constructions correct ?

1) And now meet the lady in whom I place absolute trust.

2) And now meet the lady whom/who/that I place absolute trust in.

3) And now meet the lady I place absolute trust in.

Thank you in advance,
Hela

[danmahaffey]

Dear teachers,

Are all of the following constructions correct ?

1) And now meet the lady in whom I place absolute trust.

2) And now meet the lady whom/who/that I place absolute trust in.

3) And now meet the lady I place absolute trust in.

Thank you in advance,
HelaIn whose opinion? In my opinion, they're fine. Of course, you're on thin ice with some other authorities, and I think you know where. But I'll point out the obvious for our other readers.

First, objects of prepositions must be objective case. That means who must be whom. This rule really hasn't relaxed enough to experiment with on an exam.

Second, many authorities still don't like prepositions at the end of sentences and clauses. Those people are pedants; ignore them. Be careful on exams though.

Third, some hypercorrecting, overly fussy types don't like that for people, but prefer who(m). They're misled. Be careful on exams though.

English is a fabulous language for ellipses, and your third sentence simply dismisses the object of the preposition in as if it were a house fly. That's fine with me, but it certainly leaves in dangling with nothing to do and no way to fix it short of rewriting the sentence.

In an address or speech, your first sentence is letter perfect. In an informal gathering or introduction, your last sentence is fine. Your second sentence is ok too, as long as you don't mix the correct whom with the incorrect in.

I hope this helps.

P.S. Someone wrongly, but quite humorously, once quoted Winston Churchill as writing, when a junior editor corrected a preposition of his at the end of a sentence, "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put." (Translated, this means, This is the sort of English I will not put up with.)