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I wrote this recently for an interview write-up, and was corrected with "whom" instead of "which". If the SUBJECT of the sentence is the person/people, then I understand about the use of "whom". However in this case, I meant the subject to be "work" which I introduced early in the sentence, so I used "which" to refer to it. Is that wrong?

Her work primarily requires her to interact with Deaf individuals, which she had no experience with.

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  • Alas, relative clauses have a strong attraction to the nearest possible antecedent.
    – deadrat
    Sep 16, 2016 at 8:31

2 Answers 2

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There is clearly confusion as to whether the relative clause refers to "her work" or to "deaf individuals".

In my view clauses placed well away, in a sentence, from the text to which they relate are problematic.

I believe you also need either the present or past perfect, has had or had had. The simple past does not work in this sentence.

My suggestion would be to say, Her work, with which she has had no experience, primarily requires her to interact with deaf individuals.

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  • If we allow that the thing she had no prior experience with was interacting with deaf individuals, I think the simple past works all right: “Her current job primarily requires her to interact with deaf individuals, something which she had no experience with prior to taking this job”. If it's her job she has no experience with, it should be either perfect (present or past) or simple present, as you say. Oct 1, 2016 at 1:55
  • @JanusBahsJacquet Umm. Yes, perhaps.
    – WS2
    Oct 1, 2016 at 12:52
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Maybe the one who corrected you, think that "She" has no experience with Deaf individuals not the "Job" because of your last word of the sentence, since you wrote "interact WITH".

You can change the last word of your sentence to "OF" instead of "WITH" if you insist on using which. Thus it become "Her work primarily requires her to interact with Deaf individuals, which she had no experience of."

I hope i can help.

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  • ...of which she had no experience. To avoid ending the sentence with a preposition.
    – Chenmunka
    Sep 16, 2016 at 10:01

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