The woman of whom...

Question

Hi,Please, which of the following sentence is correct?"The woman of whom journalists are taking pictures now is a controversial politician."The woman whom journalists are taking pictures of now is a controversial politician.Thanks.

Cool Breeze · Accepted Answer

big dreamHi,Please, which of the following sentences is correct?"The woman of whom journalists are taking pictures now is a controversial politician."The woman whom journalists are taking pictures of now is a controversial politician.Thanks.

Both are correct.

CB

DMW · Answer

I have encountered both placements of "of", in sentences such as these. I wouldn't class either of them as wrong, although if you're going to use a word like "whom", it does sound a little odd to move the preposition away from it. I guess I'm saying that the first option is better. The second option would be better if you used "who" instead of "whom", as many native speakers would.

The thing that disturbs me in both of these sentences, and renders them incorrect in my opinion, is the placement of "now". It's completely ambiguous which verb it qualifies. To avoid this ambiguity, I would write this sentence either as

The woman of whom journalists are now taking pictures is a controversial politician.

or

The woman of whom journalists are taking pictures is now a controversial politician.

depending on which is intended.

The woman of whom...

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