Where or Which — Relative Clauses About Places
Practice where vs which after places: the hotel where we stayed, the hotel which has a pool — and why 'where I was born in' is wrong.
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This is the town ___ I was born.
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where
'I was born there' → 'where'. 'Where' already means 'in that place', so nothing else is needed at the end.
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We stayed in a hotel ___ had a beautiful garden.
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which
The hotel itself had the garden — the hotel is the subject of 'had' → 'which'. 'Where' only works when you could say 'there': 'the hotel where we stayed'.
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The museum ___ we visited on Sunday was full of school groups.
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which
'Visit' takes an object — we visited the museum, not 'we visited there'. So the museum is the object of 'visited' → 'which', not 'where'.
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The restaurant ___ we had dinner last night is closed on Mondays.
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where
'We had dinner there' → 'where'. 'Which we had dinner' doesn't work — there's no place for 'which' in that sentence.
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Lisbon is a city ___ attracts millions of tourists every year.
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which
The city does the attracting — it's the subject of 'attracts' → 'which'. 'Where' would need a new subject: 'a city where people…'.
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I'd love to go back to the village ___ my grandparents used to live.
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where
'My grandparents used to live there' → 'where'. 'Which' would need 'in' at the end: 'the village which they lived in'.
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Holiday photos
Sam: Who's the man in this photo?
Ella: That's the guide {1} showed us round the old town. He knew everything!
Sam: And is this the beach {2} you swam every morning?
Ella: Yes! And this is the boat {3} took us to the islands.
Sam: Who's the woman with the dog?
Ella: Oh, she ran the guesthouse {4} we stayed. She's the woman {5} dog followed us everywhere!
Sam: Ha! And when was this one taken?
Ella: On our last evening, {6} we all had dinner on a roof terrace. The restaurant {7} we chose had the best view in town.Show answer
1. who — The guide is a person, and he showed us round → 'who'.
2. where — 'You swam there every morning' → 'where'.
3. which — The boat took us — the boat is the subject of 'took' → 'which', not 'where'.
4. where — 'We stayed there' → 'where'.
5. whose — Her dog → 'whose dog'.
6. when — 'Our last evening' is a time → 'when' (= on that evening).
7. which — We chose the restaurant — it's the object of 'chose', not 'we chose there' → 'which'.
Where or Which After a Place?
A noun that names a place can take either where or which, and the choice depends on the verb in the clause, not on the noun. Where means there: the restaurant where we had dinner — we had dinner there. Which is needed when the place is the subject of the clause (Lisbon is a city which attracts millions of tourists) or its object (the museum which we visited — we visited the museum, not visited there). Testing with there settles almost every case. It also explains a common error: because where already contains the meaning of in or at, adding the preposition again — the town where I was born in — says it twice. The correct versions are the town where I was born or the town which I was born in.