From which

I had a linguistics professor who used to say. Overall, you can impress people with your knowledge of this fancy syntax, but it often times will be more confusing than illuminating. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Can "where" be used as "from which"? Ask Question. Asked 6 years, 3 months ago.

Active 6 years, 3 months ago. Viewed 7k times. But I sometimes see sentences like New York is where I came from. I asked my teacher, and she said it's equivalent to New York is the place from which I came from. Improve this question. RexYuan RexYuan 6 6 silver badges 15 15 bronze badges. You definitely don't need a double "from" in " from which I came from ". It's either "which I came from" or "from which I came.

Thanks for the reply, Lucky! But if "where" is replaced by "the place from which", why the double "from" unnecessary? If "the place from which" in "New York is the place from which I came" is replaced by "where", won't it be just "New York is where I came".

Is that right? Right, my mistake - "where from" is replaced by "the place from which" or "the place which Lucky I'm a little confused. What's "where" replacing in this context? I now know that two "from" is ungrammatical, so is it replacing other preposition? The things get complicated because you have one relative pronoun where replacing "the place" but "the place" is further defined by a relative clause "which I came from".

The fact is that grammar is not math - it is difficult to simply say: X replaces Y. Each construction is assessed on it's own, not relative to the other.

Normally, the choice should depend on whether the hotel is more importantly a building or a location. Because the location matters, "where" seems apt. But, the sentence is talking about a building, and so the ear wants the pronoun that goes with a building. Accordingly, I vote for "which. So do you mean that if it's a building or facility that we have to go in and use the equipment inside, it should be "from which", if it's merely a location, we use "from where"? I am saying only that in the case of a hotel, "which" sounds better.

Likewise, it sounds better for "airport," because it's a thing not a place. Indeed, "which" is especially good for "airport" because it's a facility from which planes leave, and it's precise location as compared to a hotel in walking distance of tourist attractions is not terribly important to one's choosing it.

I am not stating a "rule" so much as a reason for a preference. What would you choose? I think it also has something to do with the verbs we use. Words like "move" and "immigrate" is not only about moving from one location to another, but also involves the intention of living there permanently. So, here "from which" is used because "China" here is not just a location, but the object of the phrase "immigrate from". However, in this sentence I believe you will definitely use "from where": We drove to New York, from where we flew to Washington".

In this sentence "New York" is just a location where we took a flight. Show 2 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Roger Roger 1, 4 4 silver badges 12 12 bronze badges. Thank you for replying! I am not a native speaker so maybe your native speaker ears are more "right". But whence actually equals "from where".