"The place I was born" vs. "The place I was born in"

Question

This is the place where I was born. [1]

I can omit where & keep the antecedent place :

This is the place I was born. [1a]

I can omit the antecedent place and keep the relative word where :

This is where I was born. [1b]

I can replace where with "preposition + which" :

This is the place in which I was born. [2]

I can place the preposition at the end :

This is the place which I was born in. [2a]

I can omit which from this sentence :

This is the place I was born in. [2b]

Do both the sentences, [1a] and [2b], sound good?

listeneva · Answer

All those examples sound natural, except for [2] and [2a].

This is the place in which I was born. [2]
This is the place which I was born in. [2a]

[2] sounds formal, and [2a] sounds formal and a bit awkward to my ears if not ungrammatical.
That said, [2a] might work in British English.

Richard Carnahan · Answer

Between the two, 1a sounds natural in a conversational sense while 2b violates the somewhat archaic prohibition of ending a sentence with a preposition which might strike the hearer as incorrect, as every one of my English teachers would agree.

Answered by Richard Carnahan on January 4, 2021

"The place I was born" vs. "The place I was born in"

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