What is the meaning of 'in which' here?

Question

When I asked my theacher to explain the usage of those , he said that we can use these propositions just before where, which. Like expressed here:

The boat which the oil was transported in

can be

The boat in which the oil was transported

And I understand this part. But I came across a sentences today which is:

the hideous way in which she treated her maid after she discovered her ring was missing

And I can't approach this sentence same way above or can I?

There are a lot of sentences like this that the above technique doesnt work or I cannot get it worked. Thanks in advence.

Answer 1

Note that the examples above are noun clauses, not sentences. You would have to add a subject or object and a verb to make a sentence:

I saw the boat in which the oil was transported

For the first clause in is means inside. The boat is a container, and the oil is what's inside the container.

For the second clause, in doesn't mean inside: it has a special meaning when it is used with way. Here is a definition from the Cambridge Dictionary.

For the first clause, you can replace which with that, but you have to retain in to make it clear that one thing is inside the other:

The boat which the oil was transported in

With the second clause, you can also replace which with that, but the in is no longer required.

the hideous way that she treated her maid after she discovered her ring was missing

The same is true in other sentences:

I don't like the way in which he looks at me
I don't like the way that he looks at me

Answer 2

It's similar, because we can say with

• The bad way in which X was treated, or
• X was treated in a bad way

It only really flows properly when the word treated is immediately followed by in.

So, because the words her maid are between treated and in you could say "the hideous way she treated her maid after she discovered her ring" (drop in completely), or the original sentence from your example.

It would be useful to see the beginning of the sentence, if there is one. The "in which" format is a bit more formal sounding.

Answer 3

The rule is the same: "the hideous way which she treated her maid in...".

Note that while "which...in" clauses tend to sound fine in speech, they tend to look terrible in print. I would stick to using "in which" or "that" in any written material.

Answer 4

[1] the hideous way [(in) which she treated her maid] after she discovered her ring was missing.

[2] the hideous way [which she treated her maid (in)] after she discovered her ring was missing.

Either one is acceptable. Note that the preposition "in" is optional though it is more likely to be fronted as in [1] than stranded as in [2]. In each case, the relative clause can be analysed as she treated her maid (in) some hideous way.

Incidentally, these are not sentences, but noun phrases containing embedded modifying relative clauses (bracketed).