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Is the following phrase (grammatically) correct?

Bill Gates, whose company is very rich, is famous.

(I couldn't come up with a better context-free sample)

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  • In this example, and some similar usages, it can be restructured as Bill Gates is famous because his company is very rich. That's not what I'm asking for.
    – SLaks
    Commented Jan 21, 2011 at 18:42
  • I'm sorry, @SLaks, but I would try to desist from creating tags such as whose in the future. Already, several pertinent ones exist: adjectives, pronouns, usage, grammar, etc.
    – Jimi Oke
    Commented Jan 21, 2011 at 22:06

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Yes.

The repetition of "is" is a bit ugly but not ungrammatical.

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  • So it's the correct version of whose?
    – SLaks
    Commented Jan 21, 2011 at 19:27
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    @SLaks: Yes. 'Whose' refers to the owner of the object. 'Who's' is a contraction of 'who is'.
    – oosterwal
    Commented Jan 21, 2011 at 19:41
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I didn't even see the second "is" as a problem. In my mind, the jump to the subsentence using commas is very orthogonal to the rest of the text. The "whose" is correctly used but if you're free to rephrase, you might consider the following, too.

Bill Gates, the company of whom is very rich, is famous.

It's a bit unusual to hear that (at least amongst people I talk to) but I love the clarity of what's pointing to what. As this, a bit digressive, example.

The motorbike, the anti-theft system of which is unbreakable, was badly damaged.

It's a true story, too, as of two weeks ago. Poor bike, the owner of which is me, is at the shop now.

:)

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