Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

someday · Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 43

Dear Grammarians,

Which one do you think is the best way to express the idea. If none of them sounds natural, please suggest an alternative. Thanks.

1. There are too many words that I don't know the meanings of
2. There are too many words which I don't know the meanings of
3. There are too many words of which I don't know the meanings.

P.S. Could I use "the meaning" instead of "the meanings"?

buddhaheart · Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2007 6:50 pm Post subject:

How about �I don�t know the meanings of many words in English?� Idea

someday · Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 43

Lorikeet · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 1877 Location: San Francisco

How about "There are too many words I don't understand in this text."

buddhaheart · Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2007 8:03 pm Post subject:

Sorry. I�ll give it one more shot.

�That� and �which� can be used interchangeably in your sentence. Keeping the words �of which� together instead of leaving the �of� at the end is more formal.

You may want to rework your sentence to include the possessive �whose�, as:

There�s this page in the book which (that) contains too many words whose meanings I don't know (I know nothing of).

Or you may turn the complex structure into a simple one, as:

I don't know the meanings of many words on this page of the book.

Here's another example:

There�s this page in the book which (that) contains too many words I don't understand.

Use the plural of �meaning� as even one word could have numerous meanings.

someday · Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 43