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Is the following sentence grammatically correct?

My friendly neighbor, from whom I borrowed a ladder last night, is a nurse;

The correct answer seems to suggest that

My friendly neighbor, whom I borrowed a ladder from last night, is a nurse.

I would prefer the first sentence, but is it grammatically correct?

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  • It is grammatically correct - indeed, purists would prefer that version, though some on this forum claim that whom is obsolete. The second version is more colloquial, and would often be said as who I borrowed a ladder from.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Sep 6, 2021 at 7:17
  • Either sounds odd: there seems to be a jarring juxtaposition at least bordering on a non sequitur (though perhaps context could rtedeem it). A more extreme example: 'My friendly neighbor, who prefers brown toast to white, is a famous actor.' This complicates assessment of how natural-sounding the constructions are. In fact, the second variant sounds the less natural (though I do agree with Kate that switching to 'who' rectifies this).
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Sep 6, 2021 at 9:41
  • Yes: it's grammatically fine. When the pronoun is directly the object of a preposition "whom" is required. In your first example "from who" would thus be ungrammatical. In your second example it's a free choice between "who" and "whom".
    – BillJ
    Commented Sep 6, 2021 at 12:52
  • Thanks for the clarification
    – J Muzhen
    Commented Sep 6, 2021 at 13:48

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Both are grammatically correct.

However, your second sentence sounds a tiny, tiny bit weird because "whom" is usually used in a more formal (/educated/pretentious) register. And if you're using a more formal register, you'd be more likely to produce (or you should want to produce) the first sentence instead.

In most daily speech, it would be more natural/common to say: "My friendly neighbor, who I borrowed a ladder from last night, is a nurse."

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