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Is it grammatical to say

I have a friend whose father I respect so much

when there are the following facts:

  1. I have a friend
  2. I respect his/her father so much
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For the use of "whose", your sentence is grammatical. "Whose" is an adjective and is not either subjective or objective. It is the noun ("father") that is the object, not "whose". "Whose" is simply giving more information about "father". Your use of "so much", while common, is not ideal. It would be better to use "very much". As it stands, you respect him so much as what? You might say something like "There are few people I respect so much as Johnny's father." There you are comparing other people with Johnny's father. It would also be fairly common to use "as much as" or "more than" in that case.

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  • The comparison form is as much as ...
    – TimR
    Commented Apr 9, 2016 at 11:17
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    There's nothing wrong with "so much" without an explicit comparison. It is usually more emphatic than "very much" - an exclamation.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Apr 9, 2016 at 11:18
  • @ColinFine: I didn't say that it is wrong. I said that it isn't ideal ... and it isn't.
    – zondo
    Commented Apr 9, 2016 at 11:23

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