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Which one is correct?

I’ve added changes/fixes which we discussed yesterday.

or

I’ve added changes/fixes about which we discussed yesterday.

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As noted in the answers, "about" is incorrect. I think the temptation to use it occurs because of the verb phrase "talk about" which means nearly the same thing as "discuss". – res Nov 19 '10 at 15:18

3 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

You don't need the about. However, I would probably also remove the which and add a the, making it:

I've added the changes/fixes we discussed yesterday.

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3  
I'd phrase this stronger: it's not just that you don't need the "about", it's that the "about" is incorrect. – Marthaª Nov 19 '10 at 16:38
up vote 3 down vote

"Discuss" is transitive; you discuss a thing, you never discuss about a thing. As such, "about which we discussed" is simply incorrect.

Compare to "talk". You talk about a thing, you never "talk a thing". So the opposite would be true and you would have to say "the thing about which we talked", in this case.

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up vote 1 down vote

The "about" is unnecessary, just like the "after" in "After having spoken with him..."

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I'm not sure if your two examples are really parallel. The OP's "about" sounds much worse than your "after". – Marthaª Nov 19 '10 at 14:53
@Martha: I think they're parallel in their use of unnecessary words that do nothing but clutter the sentence, regardless of which is the worse offender. As @Dusty said, though, the "which" seems unnecessary too, and the sentence seems be even cleaner and clearer with both of them removed. This is one of the principles of Strunk & White ("A sentence should contain no unnecessary words..."); cf. bartleby.com/141/strunk5.html, point 13. – Andy Nov 19 '10 at 15:03
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No, they are fundamentally different. "Discuss about" is ungrammatical for most native English users, as "discuss" requires a direct object; therefore "which we discussed about" is equally ungrammatical. "After having" is grammatical as far as I know for all English speakers, and omitting the "after" is a question of style, not grammar. Of course it may happen that "discuss about" gains ground, and becomes progressively more grammatical: in that case this also will become a question of style. – Colin Fine Nov 19 '10 at 15:58
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@Colin Fine, thanks for stating it so clearly. I was having trouble articulating the "discuss about" is wrong, "after having" is just wordy distinction. – Marthaª Nov 19 '10 at 16:49
@Colin Fine: I cannot find a source that indicates that "After having spoken with him..." is grammatically incorrect, but it is a redundant phrase, and I did find several references that suggest it is awkward even if it's not incorrect. So thank you for pointing out the distinction. You learn something new every day :) – Andy Nov 19 '10 at 16:53

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