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I heard a person saying,

I'm the kind of person where I don't really share much about my life.

searched the structure of the sentence online and found that there are actually many usages of this expression.

I'm the kind of person where I look to myself a lot on how I can get better. What little, nuanced differences can I make?

I've always been the kind of person where I appreciate tradition, but I feel like individuality is necessary in order to be creative.

It seems a bit strange to see that a person and where is connected, and I wasn't sure if where here is modifying a person or not. Are these sentences grammatically correct? If not, what is the correct/formal alternative for this?

And is it a commonly used/widely understood sentence structure in English colloquially even though it's not grammatical?

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    It would be understood but it's not correct. People can be where but they are not where. They are who. Keep where for places, situations, circumstances and the like. Mar 30, 2022 at 14:57
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    It's not so much the grammar as the idiom that is odd. I would expect to hear I'm the kind of person who doesn't... the kind of person who looks... the kind of person who appreciates... Mar 30, 2022 at 15:07

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Traditionally, this would be expressed using "who". For example:

I'm the kind of person who doesn't really share much about my life.

That would clearly be correct.

But usages change and new idioms develop. If this usage is indeed becoming common, then it can be considerd newly correct.

However this Google Ngram chart shows very small use for "the kind of person where", although the use does show as increasing.

Google books does show such uses as:

  • But I think Justine's the kind of person where, if she wants to read a book, she just goes ahead and buys it. [Where There's a Will by Elizabeth Spann Craig (2021)]
  • If someone is looking for a patsy, that is the kind of person that they would pick: innocent, isolated, timorous; the kind of person where if you bully them they keep quiet about it; [Decoded: A Novel by Mai Jia (2014)]
  • You become the kind of person where I say, we need more practical types like Myla Lewis in the world. [Clockwork Igni: Action. Adventure. Fantasy. Badassdom by Christina Bauer (2021)]
  • So me, I'm just the kind of person where I'm always looking for the next. What's the next future? [Public Enemy: Inside the Terrordome by Tim Grierson (2015)]
  • But Stephin has always been the kind of person, where, if you ask him what he thinks of the Spinanes record, he's going to tell you. [Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label that ... by John Cook (2009)]

There are many pages of similar results. Is this enough to call it good current usage? That is a judgement call. I would prefer to stick to "who" in this construction. I don't see any gain in using "where", or anyadditional nuance or clarification. But I am not willing to say that it is simply wrong, as I once would have. However, I would certainly not use this "where" construction in formal writing, unless I were discussing the usage itself, or quoting those who use it.

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