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As non-native speaker, It is hard to distinguish the collocation of a verb and preposition. In the following sentences, please figure out the grammaticality.

  1. Can you recommend the hotel in which I can stay?
  2. This is the box in which the book is kept is very old.
  3. This is the best place in which I have visited.
  4. I will show the house in which I lived when I was young.

I don’t see any grammatical flaw in these sentences. I know other expressions would be more fluent and authentic, still I want to know whether I can say it is ungrammatical.

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    2 and 3 are not grammatical.
    – TimR
    Commented Jul 4 at 14:28
  • #1 is off in its use of "the" if you're asking for a hotel recommendation. But if your company made a reservation for you to stay a particular hotel because they have some sort of agreement with that hotel, for example, and that's the only place you can stay, you might ask someone if they think that hotel is any good, and in that case your sentence would be OK.
    – TimR
    Commented Jul 4 at 14:36
  • @TimR still a bit clumsy though. I would prefer "Do you recommend the hotel in which I'm staying?" (but would probably say "Do you recommend the hotel I'm staying in?")
    – Daniel Roseman
    Commented Jul 4 at 14:37
  • Do you recommend is more likely, certainly in contemporary American English. "Can you recommend..." with the modal is a tad less demanding of a yes/no answer; it has a polite spin. It's like asking "Is there anything about that hotel you would find commendable?"
    – TimR
    Commented Jul 4 at 14:42
  • 1a) Can you recommend a hotel I can stay at? 2a) This box [that] the book is kept in is very old. 3a) This is the best place I have visited. 4a) I will show you the house I lived in when I was young.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 4 at 14:51

2 Answers 2

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This is the box in which the book is kept is very old.

That's not a grammatical sentence. Here are two possibilities:

The box in which the book is kept is very old.

This is the box in which the book is kept.

We can spend time in a place. But we don't say "I visited in that place". We say "I visited that place".

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    or 'This is the box in which the book that is kept is very old.' (the other boxes contain newer books) // 'Can you recommend a hotel in which I can stay?' (more usually just 'Can you recommend a hotel?' // 'This is the best place which I have visited.' (more usually 'which' is replaced by 'that' or just omitted) // 'I will show you the house in which I lived when I was young.'
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jul 4 at 14:39
  • @EdwinAshworth: Your first sentence strikes my ear as borderline ungrammatical.
    – TimR
    Commented Jul 4 at 14:47
  • My ear wants to add "in the box". "This is box in which the book (that is) kept in the box is very old."
    – TimR
    Commented Jul 4 at 14:53
  • 'We keep many books, one to a box; the book that is kept in one of these boxes is very old. Ah, this is the box in which the book that is kept is very old.'
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jul 4 at 15:02
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Can you recommend the hotel in which I can stay?

Grammatically correct. As I mentioned in a comment before I started writing this answer, you would be unlikely to say "THE hotel" as "the" indicates there is only one. You would be more likely to ask, "Can you recommend A hotel ..."

This is the box in which the book is kept is very old.

Incorrect. There are two prepositions, "is kept" and "is very old". Depending on what you are trying to say is old, you might mean, "This is the box in which the book that is very old is kept" or "This is the very old box in which the book is kept". Or "The box in which the book is kept is very old". Etc, one could come up with other variations.

This is the best place in which I have visited.

Incorrect. We don't say "in which I have visited". The "in which" serves no purpose as there is only one verb in the sentence, "have visited". You could say, "This is the best place I have visited".

I will show the house in which I lived when I was young.

Correct. I might note that a native speaker would be unlikely to use the wordy "in which". He'd be more likely to say, "I will show the house I lived in when I was young."

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