"With what [...]?" or "What [...] with?"

Question

Making a comparison with Who/Whom I now have a question about the use of what with prepositions in questions. I'll explain by example:

These two sentences are correct, one is more formal than the other:

Who/Whom

Formal: With whom are you doing that?
Informal: Who are you doing that with?

But if I substitute Who/Whom with What, the "formal" one sounds a bit awkward and I'm not sure if it's correct or not:

What

With what are you doing that?
What are you doing that with?

So, are those last two questions grammatically correct?
Is one more formal than the other?

Barrie England · Accepted Answer

Yes, they are both grammatical, but With what are you doing that? is much more formal, and probably quite rare.

digimunk · Answer

"Who are you doing that with?" is not correct.  "With" is a preposition, and prepositions take objects.  "Who" is subjective, and "whom" is objective.  Therefore, one must use "whom" in a prepositional phrase.

"With what are you doing that?" and "What are you doing that with?" are both correct.  Ending a sentence with a preposition is not incorrect, but including a preposition without its object is.

"With what..." is the more formal of the two.

"With what [...]?" or "What [...] with?"

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