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worth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 25

Hogbear,
I'm sorry if I sounded a little defensive or sarcastic in my last reply. Sometimes on this sight things can get so ugly that I just assume I'm somehow being attacked. Sorry

I was going to mention restrictive and nonrestrictive as that seems to be a key point.

Peace,
Worth

Mike_2003 · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 344 Location: Bucharest, Romania

I've always found "where" to be used in situations in which the noun the RC is applied to is neither the subject nor the direct object of the verb used in the RC. Also, as mentioned, it should refer to a place.

To use the previous examples:

-That's the restaurant where I first met my best friend. (You didn't meet the restaurant, you met your best friend IN the restaurant)

-That's the house where I was born. (I was born the house..nope...IN the house)

And some more common examples:

-The place where we stayed.
BUT...
-The place which we visited. ("Visit" takes a DO, "stay" doesn't)

And so on...

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

Which is acceptable in both American and British English in defining relative clauses

To quote the SOED:

Dr.J · Joined: 09 May 2003 Posts: 304 Location: usually Japan

Hmm, this is a crazy idea but,

the fact that there is this discussion and confusion might prove to some extent that there is regular use of both.

If the use of one or the other proved to be a significant barrier to communication, then we would all 'know' which one was 'correct', because it would just sound wrong.

Handbooks of style are strange things: one the one hand, they are simply telling us just what does occur. Then, once they are written, we turn to them to tell us what should occur. As if by simply drawing a car, we are ordering that all further cars must look this way...