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Ive read the following relative clause:

... that control which recipient a message is sent to

If I look at

which recipient a message is sent to

"recipient" is the subject and "a message" is the object. Then we have the word order subject object verb. So its false? If its not false, why isn't it?

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    There's nothing wrong with it unless you're going to object to ending a sentence with a preposition (which few people do nowadays), in which case it would have to be to which recipient a message is sent.
    – Kate Bunting
    Aug 26, 2022 at 12:14
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    A minor correction: You mean incorrect, not false. False means something like "not matching a true fact". For example, "Two pluses a two is equals the four" is grammatically incorrect, but not false; "Two plus two equals five" is grammatically correct, but false.
    – stangdon
    Aug 26, 2022 at 12:18

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"A message" is the subject, "recipient" is the indirect object. The clause is passive. Compare:

"Every morning, I send a message to all members of staff" (active - the subject is "I")

"Every morning, a message is sent to all members of staff" (passive - the subject is "a message").

You can also clearly see that "a message" is the subject, because the verb agrees with it. We can demonstrate this by changing "a message" to "the messages", watch:

"... which recipient the messages are sent to"

But if we turn "recipient" into "recipients" nothing happens:

"... which recipients a message is sent to"

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  • Ok even if the sentence is in passive. Why can you place the indirect object before the subject? Is that object fronting? Don't you need to write it as "which recipient, the messages are sent to?"
    – Hans Mustermann
    Aug 26, 2022 at 21:07
  • @HansMustermann Well no, "which songs I listen to", "which people I talk to", "which of the various advisers, civil servants and assorted hangers-on the prime minister meets with", etc. etc. It's standard grammar and it follows the same pattern as other relative clauses. "It controls which recipient the messages are sent to" is no different to "it controls what food I eat" which is no different to "it controls what I eat"
    – Au101
    Aug 26, 2022 at 21:42
  • Thank you I got its another relative clause in a relativ clause.
    – Hans Mustermann
    Aug 26, 2022 at 22:04

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