from where & from which, during which & during which time [closed]

Question

Could you explain the differences between: 1. from where & from which; 2. during which & during which time.

Thanks!

Answer 1

If I want to know where something or someone came from, then the general question I can ask is

From where did you get that?

This question could get different answers, like from Thailand, or from a little store on Main Street. The answers are answers to different interpretations of the general question. Where is basically a short form of which place!

However, if I know that it is an object bought in a store, and I want to know the store where it was bought, I can ask a more specific question:

From which store did you get that?

Now, obviously, from Thailand is no longer a valid answer!

So, in short, if you do not specify what kind of place you are asking about, you can ask from which place, or in short from where.

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The difference between during which and during which time is a different issue.

You use during which when you refer to something, an event, that was happening, while at the same time something else happened:

We had a great lunch, during which my father gave a speech.

You use during which time to indicate that something happened in the time-span that is taken by something else.

She spend hours doing her make-up, during which time I managed to finish reading "War and Peace".

The main difference between the two phrases is the implication that my father gave a speech at the mentioned dinner - he was present there, and the speech was given in the presence of the diners. If I would have said during which time my father gave a speech, he could have been anywhere else, giving a speech, but not to the people at the dinner!

In the second sentence, I have been reading my book, but that was not something that was part of her doing her make-up, I probably wasn't even present.

To show this contrast with two similar phrases:

The class lasted two hours, during which we read Hamlet.
The class lasted two hours, during which time we read Hamlet.

The fist sentence means that this was probably a literature class, and reading the play was part of that class - everyone read the play together. During which refers to the class.

The second sentence gives the impression that the class was possibly boring, or "we" were not even present, but instead of paying attention to the class, we read the play. During which time refers to the two hours, the time that the class lasted.