These questions ask you to add information about a numbered or otherwise bounded group, such as some people or several things. You must choose the quantity, preserve the connection to that group and select the human or nonhuman relative form.
Build one integrated relative clause
Find the complete set before the comma, then ask how many members the new clause describes. Choose a quantifier such as one, both, several, most, all or none. Place of immediately after it. Finish the opening with whom if the set contains people and with which if it contains things, animals, documents or other nonhuman members. The resulting phrase itself links the subset back to the antecedent.
| Decision signal | Construction and tiny example |
|---|---|
| The earlier set contains people | Use quantity plus of whom: Five pilots joined us, two of whom spoke Icelandic. |
| The earlier set contains things | Use quantity plus of which: Four parcels arrived, one of which was torn. |
| The new clause describes zero, part or all of the set | Let the quantifier carry that amount: Ten seedlings emerged, none of which flowered. |
| The clause adds rather than identifies | Keep the comma and the non-defining structure: The choir welcomed six singers, several of whom knew the piece. |
Read the result as one sentence, not as a complete sentence followed by a fragment. After the relative opening, the remaining verb must agree with the quantified subset: one of which was, but several of whom were. That agreement follows the quantity, while whom versus which follows the nature of the earlier set.
Where the mistakes come from
- Plural number is used to choose which. Number does not decide the relative form here; people require whom, while nonhuman members require which.
- A personal pronoun such as them is inserted before another relative word. The quantity plus of whom or of which already connects the members to the earlier set, so the extra pronoun creates a competing structure.
- The words are rearranged around of. Keep the stable sequence quantity, of, relative form; moving the relative form before the quantity or separating the quantity from of breaks the construction.
Try it
Write exactly five words: begin with two of whom, then use the simple-past be-passive of select. The panel interviewed nine candidates, ___.
Write exactly four words: begin with none of which, then use the simple past of survive. The storm damaged five antennas, ___.
Write exactly five words: begin with several of whom, then use the past perfect of apply. Thirty volunteers attended, ___.