Would you please tell me, is it true correct to leave "from whom" and "that" out of the following sentences.
1-A woman from whom you rent a room.
2-Jim was wearing a hat that was too big for him. |
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Let's take the second sentence first.
Jim was wearing a hat that was too big for him. (Subject underlined. Relative connection in bold.)
This comes from:
Jim was wearing a hat. The hat was too big for him. (Subject underlined. Relative connection in bold.)
that is the subject of the clause
that was too big for him. It is not correct to leave out a relative pronoun (
that) when that relative pronoun is the subject of the clause it is in.
So in this case, no, you cannot correctly leave out
that.
_________
Now let's take the first example. It is not a sentence.
Let's change it a little and make it a sentence first. That may
make things easier.
Mrs. Bruggle is the woman from whom you rent a room. (Subject underlined. Relative connection in bold.)
This comes from:
Mrs. Bruggle is the woman. You rent a room from that woman. (Subject underlined. Relative connection in bold.)
Here you see that the subject (underlined) of the secondary clause and
the words that are connected into a relative construction (in bold) are
not the same, so you have a choice.
After you substitute
whom for
that woman, to produce:
1)
Mrs. Bruggle is the woman. *You rent a room from whom.
you must notice that
whom is part of a prepositional phrase
from whom.
You may move the entire prepositional phrase to the beginning of the secondary clause, to form:
1A)
Mrs. Bruggle is the woman from whom you rent a room.
OR, if you want to leave out
whom, you just leave it out at the end, and
do not move the preposition from. Leave it at the end.
1B)
Mrs. Bruggle is the woman you rent a room from.
Both 1A and 1B are correct. Both are derived from 1), which
is not correct, but is a necessary step to illustrate the two possible
derivations.
If you move the entire prepositional phrase first, and then leave out
whom, you will make an incorrect sentence!
*Mrs. Bruggle is the woman from you rent a room.
CJ