Relative Pronouns – ‘From Which’ or ‘That’?

pied-pipingrelative-pronouns

Can you tell me which one is correct?

  1. Emily Dickinson's garden was a place from which she drew great inspiration for her poems.

  2. Emily Dickinson's garden was a place that she drew great inspiration for her poems.

Best Answer

To imitate one of the best answers I've read here...

You have four possible ways to rephrase that sentence:

  1. with a ‘null-relativizer’ → Emily Dickinson's garden was a place she drew great inspiration for her poems from.
  2. with that → Emily Dickinson's garden was a place that she drew great inspiration for her poems from.
  3. with which → Emily Dickinson's garden was a place which she drew great inspiration for her poems from.
  4. with which and ‘pied-piping’ → Emily Dickinson's garden was a place from which she drew great inspiration for her poems.

So, only your first alternative is correct. The second one will need from at the end of sentence. Please also note that the relative that may not pied-pipe.

You can find more details on 'pied-piping' in StoneyB's answer mentioned above.

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