関係代名詞の使い方, part 18: 関係代名と前置詞

Another tricky thing about relative clauses is when prepositions are also involved. Look at these sentences:

I often eat at this restaurant.
It serves this dish.
This restaurant, at which I often eat, serves this dish. <- less natural
This restaurant, which I often eat at, serves this dish. <- more natural

The dish is called falafel. It's made from chickpeas.

• falafel ファラフェル◆ひよこ豆のコロッケ、もしくはひよこ豆のコロッケをピタパンなどに挟んだサンドイッチ

Now look at these sentences.

That is a pita.
The falafel is served in it.
That is a pita that the falafel is served in.

The truth is that strict teachers say this kind of sentence is wrong. The "at" in that sentence is called a "stranded preposition".

• stranded preposition 残置前置詞｛ざんち ぜんちし｝

There's a whole page about it on Wikipedia, but that page might be kind of tough to understand:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_stranding

Anyway, even though some strict teachers say it's not right, native speakers use them ALL THE TIME. I recommend this pattern for you, too.

You might remember this topic from when I was talking about "where". Now is a good time to go back and review that post:

http://upgradeenglish.blogspot.com/2009/08/part-6-where.html

More on relative pronouns and prepositions soon.