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A house over a waterfall: quantifier + of which and of whom

This B2 ESL lesson plan teaches quantifiers with of which and of whom through Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's 1935 design for a house over a Pennsylvania waterfall.

Grammar
A comma, a quantifier, of, then which for things or whom for people (two colors, one of which is Cherokee red), set against two sentences with one of them.
Topic
How Fallingwater was designed and built, why its cantilevers sagged and how it was saved, with words such as cantilever, terrace, sag and blend in.
Activities
An explainer, a tour and an architect's voice memo, self-checking drills, a chat about the house, arguments to sort and a wheel on homes and art.

What's inside

  1. Chapter 1Warm-up: home, sweet waterfall

    • PictureUnlock
    • Open a box and answerOpen the boxUnlock
    • Study the words: a house in the woodsVocabularyTry it
    • Look at the pictures and choose the wordChoose by pictureUnlock

  2. Chapter 2Let's read: a house that hangs over the falls

    • Look at the picture: a house over a waterfallPictureUnlock
    • Read Leona's explainer on The Why DeskArticleUnlock
    • Read and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
    • Read again and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
    • Match the paragraphs and the headingsMatchUnlock

  3. Chapter 3Let's listen: home or sculpture?

    • Listen to Leona and AmosListeningTry it
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Listen and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
    • Listen to the Reader's Rebuttal: Art's voice memoListeningUnlock
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Listen and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock

  4. Chapter 4Grammar: 4,400 of which are terraces

    • Study the scheme: some of which, most of whomGrammar schemeTry it
    • Choose the correct optionChoose the optionUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps: use the word in brackets + of which or of whomFill in the gapsUnlock
    • Fill in the table: join the two sentencesFill in the tableTry it
    • Choose the correct answer: what does it mean?QuizUnlock
    • Drag the words into the gaps: Leona's notes from the tourDrag and dropUnlock

  5. Chapter 5Let's talk: would you live there?

    • Choose the right replies: describe the house to BertrandChatTry it
    • Sort the words into the correct columns: Amos or Leona?Sort into columnsUnlock
    • Spin the wheel and answer: home or sculpture?Spin the wheelUnlock

  6. Chapter 6Homework

    • Match the words and the meaningsMatchUnlock
    • Unscramble the wordsAnagramUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps with the lesson's wordsFill in the gapsUnlock
    • Find the matching pairs: words and meaningsMemory gameUnlock
    • Choose the correct option: new sentencesChoose the optionUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps: use the word in brackets + of which or of whomFill in the gapsUnlock
    • Put the words in the correct orderUnjumbleUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer: which sentence is correct?QuizUnlock
    • Choose the correct option: a tour brochureChoose the optionUnlock
    • Drag the words into the gaps: Leona answers ArtDrag and dropUnlock

34 exercises in 6 chapters. Start a 7-day free trial to open all of them, copy any part into your own lessons, and teach the lesson live.

Architecture vocabulary

12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

  • cantilever
  • terrace
  • ledge
  • beam
  • crack
  • quarry
  • wooded
  • masterpiece
  • reinforce

Grammar: quantifier + of which and of whom

A quantifier clause adds a fact about some or all of a group without starting a new sentence: The house uses two colors, one of which is Cherokee red. Fallingwater comes with numbers, from four beams to 4,400 square feet of terraces, so there is always a group to divide. Learners choose which or whom by asking: things or people?

Quantifier + of which / of whom

Say something about part of a group, or all of it, in the same sentence: a comma, a quantifier, of, then which for things or whom for people.

Quantifier, of, then which or whom

After the comma come a quantifier (all, both, most, some, half, one, 4,400), of and which or whom, then the clause's own verb. Use neither for two, none for three or more: two cousins, neither of whom has been there.

Things: of which. People: of whom.

QuantifierThings: … of whichPeople: … of whom
all, bothtwo bridges, both of which are oldtwo guides, both of whom are architects
most, many, some, a few200 photos, most of which are blurry20 visitors, many of whom were students
halften rooms, half of which face the stream30 students, half of whom live nearby
none (3 or more), neither (2)three bridges, none of which is opentwo cousins, neither of whom has been there
one, two, three, 4,400…four beams, three of which got cablesfive friends, one of whom lives in Ohio

How to build it

Sentence + commaQuantifier + ofwhich / whomThe rest
The main house has 9,300 square feet,4,400 ofwhichare outdoor terraces.
This morning's group had twelve people,most ofwhomwere students.
Pennsylvania has two World Heritage sites,one ofwhichis Fallingwater.

One sentence or two?

Which and whom let a comma join two ideas: We met five guides, two of whom were architects. With them, add and or start a new sentence: …, and two of them were architects. These clauses add extra information, so a comma always comes before them.

One sentence or two?

One sentence: of which / of whom

  • The house uses two colors, one of which is Cherokee red.
  • We met five guides, two of whom were architects.

Two sentences, or and + them

  • The house uses two colors. One of them is Cherokee red.
  • We met five guides, and two of them were architects.

A comma alone can't join them

With a comma and no and, use which or whom: The living room has four main beams, three of which got steel cables. With them, start a new sentence or add and: …four main beams, and three of them got steel cables. These clauses add extra information, so a comma always comes before them: My cousins, both of whom live in Ohio, came too.

Never of who, never of that

Who and that can't follow of in these clauses. It's most of whom and all of which, so The tour had 20 people, most of who were students and The furniture, all of that came with the house, … are both wrong.

Never of who, never of that

After of, use whom for people and which for things: most of whom, all of which. Not: most of who, all of that. In these clauses, who and that can't come after of.

Common mistakes: people or things?

The noun before the comma decides. Guides, cousins and visitors take whom: I asked three guides, none of whom knew. Beams, photos and colors take which. None of which for people is a slip, and so is three of them after a bare comma.

  • The tour had 20 people, most of who were students.

    The tour had 20 people, most of whom were students.

    after of: whom for people, never who

  • The house has four beams, three of them got steel cables.

    The house has four beams, three of which got steel cables.

    a comma alone joins with which / whom, not them

  • The furniture, all of that came with the house, is still there.

    The furniture, all of which came with the house, is still there.

    never of that in these clauses

  • I asked three guides, none of which knew.

    I asked three guides, none of whom knew.

    people: of whom; things: of which

At Fallingwater

  • The main house has 9,300 square feet, 4,400 of which are outdoor terraces.
  • The living room has four main beams, three of which now have steel cables.
  • UNESCO listed eight Wright buildings, one of which is Fallingwater.
  • This morning's group, most of whom were architecture students, came to study it.
  • The furniture and artwork, all of which came with the house, are still in place.
  • I invited two friends, neither of whom had ever seen a cantilever.

More lessons on this grammar: Relative clauses lessons and exercises · Quantifiers lessons and exercises

Try the of which and of whom exercises

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What's in the lesson

  • 20 auto-checked exercises
  • 5 games
  • 1 article
  • 1 grammar scheme
  • 1 set of word cards
  • 2 audio clips
  • 2 pictures
  • 2 transcripts

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

  • add a fact about part of a group in one sentence: The main house has 9,300 square feet, 4,400 of which are outdoor terraces.
  • use whom for people and which for things: twelve people, most of whom were students; four beams, three of which got steel cables
  • choose neither for two and none for three or more: our two guides, neither of whom was worried
  • join with which after a comma, or with and + them: …, and three of them got steel cables, never …, three of them got…
  • describe a building and say whether it's a home or a sculpture: The furniture, all of which came with the house, is still in place.

Lesson 26 is the second lesson of Buildings and heritage, unit 7 of English B2.2 · Culture and Society. It joins B1.1 lesson 22's most of and none of to the non-defining clauses of B1.2 lesson 22, after lesson 10 put prepositions before which and whom. Lesson 27 turns to report writing. A house known by its numbers, two colors and four main beams among them, keeps dividing groups into parts.

Students open boxes of questions about famous homes and waterfalls, then learn twelve words, from blend in, sag and stick out to cantilever and quarry, with pictures and audio. They read Leona's explainer on how Fallingwater was built, why it sagged and how it was saved, then hear her tour with Amos, a guide who calls it a home, and Art, an architect who calls it impractical; the audio is AI-voiced. The grammar chapter has the scheme and five self-checking drills, among them a quiz on what each clause means. In the speaking chapter, students describe the house to Bertrand in a chat, sort the tour's arguments under Amos or Leona and spin a wheel about homes and art.

All ten homework tasks check themselves: a word match, an anagram, gaps with the building words and a memory game, then which or whom to choose, quantifier clauses to type, sentences to order, a quiz on correct sentences, Amos's tour handout and Leona's answer to Art.

Grammar:
quantifier + of which · quantifier + of whom · some of which, most of whom · non-defining relative clauses · which or whom
Topic:
Fallingwater · Frank Lloyd Wright · Mill Run, Pennsylvania · historic houses · architecture and nature · buildings and heritage · The Why Desk

Teaching tips

  • Count the group before the clause: two items take both or neither, three or more take all or none. Students check the number in each of Leona's notes before they drag in a phrase.
  • Ask “Home or sculpture?” before the reading and write reasons in two columns. After the tour, students add Amos's and Leona's arguments and say which side won them over.
  • Change of them to of which: give pairs such as We met five guides. All of them knew the house well. Students join each pair, then check whether it's about people or things.
  • Listen for the quantifier clauses on the second play of the tour: some of which stick out, 4,400 of which are terraces, most of whom were architecture students. Students write each one down with its noun.

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The whole course: English B2.2 · Culture and Society

32 more lessons for adults at B2 in American English, with the same Why Desk team in Pittsburgh. Each lesson answers one question about how Americans learn, work, travel and remember, from the law behind the 40-hour week to the oral histories of StoryCorps. Learners link ideas in formal writing, report what is said and believed, and pack more into a sentence with participle and relative clauses. The practice exercises check themselves.See the course

  1. Unit 1 Learning reimagined

    adjective suffixes and negative prefixes, mixed conditionals, provided that and on condition that

    1. Lesson 1College for farmers' kids?Adjective suffixes and negative prefixes
    2. Lesson 2One cousin, one video, millions of learnersMixed conditionals: a past cause, a result now
    3. Lesson 3A college that says yesConditional linkers: provided that, on condition that, assuming, otherwise
    4. Lesson 4School in the woodsMixed conditionals: a present state, a past result

  2. Unit 2 Work-life balance

    be required to and be entitled to, present and perfect participle clauses, participle clauses after conjunctions

    1. Lesson 5Who decided a week is 40 hours?Formal rules: be required to, be entitled to, be exempt from
    2. Lesson 6A paid year off: rest or research?Present participle clauses for time and reason
    3. Lesson 7Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin?Perfect participle clauses: having done and having been done
    4. Lesson 8Why is the first Monday of September a day off?Participle phrases after conjunctions

  3. Unit 3 Turning points

    reduced relative clauses, preposition + which and whom, which for a whole clause, noun + preposition

    1. Lesson 9The keyboard that opened the officeReduced relative clauses: -ing and the past participle
    2. Lesson 10Earthrise: the photo that changed how we see EarthPreposition + which and whom
    3. Lesson 11A city of white palaces for six monthsSentence relative clauses: which for a whole clause
    4. Lesson 12The count that took eight years?Noun + preposition: a need for, a solution to, access to

  4. Unit 4 News and truth

    although, whereas and while, the impersonal passive, despite and however, is said to have

    1. Lesson 13A newspaper of their ownLinkers of contrast: although, even though, whereas and while
    2. Lesson 14Bat-people on the Moon?The impersonal passive: It is said that…
    3. Lesson 15Read like a fact-checkerLinkers of contrast: despite, in spite of, however and even so
    4. Lesson 16Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree?Passive reporting verbs: is said to have done

  5. Unit 5 Travel that gives back

    so as to, in order to and so that, modifying comparatives, linkers of reason and result, verb + object + preposition + -ing

    1. Lesson 17Seven rules for the wild?Linkers of purpose: to, in order to, so as to, so that
    2. Lesson 18A lottery to see firefliesModifying comparatives and superlatives
    3. Lesson 19Sunrise with the turtlesLinkers of reason and result
    4. Lesson 20Volunteer on vacation?Verb + object + preposition + -ing

  6. Unit 6 Sport and society

    verb + noun collocations, what phrasal verb particles mean, a for-and-against essay, nouns from phrasal verbs

    1. Lesson 21The college team that changed disability sportVerb + noun collocations
    2. Lesson 22When women played pro baseballPhrasal verbs: what the particles mean
    3. Lesson 23Who needs a referee?The for and against essay: plan and linkers
    4. Lesson 24The comeback of Jim ThorpeNouns from phrasal verbs

  7. Unit 7 Buildings and heritage

    past participle clauses, quantifier + of which and of whom, report language, turn out and prove

    1. Lesson 25Homes built into the cliffsPast participle clauses with a passive meaning
    2. Lesson 26 · you're hereA house over a waterfallQuantifier + of which and of whom
    3. Lesson 27From factory to art museumReport language: headings, impersonal style, recommendations
    4. Lesson 28The towers the city tried to pull downTurn out and prove + to-infinitive or that clause

  8. Unit 8 Generations

    adverb + adjective collocations, three-part phrasal verbs, negative and echo questions, prepositional phrases

    1. Lesson 29Who decides where a generation ends?Adverb + adjective collocations
    2. Lesson 30Music students living in a retirement home?Three-part phrasal verbs
    3. Lesson 31Conversations kept for historyNegative questions and echo questions
    4. Lesson 32A day for grandparentsFixed prepositional phrases

Questions about this lesson

What does “of which” mean?
Of which means “of those things” and points back to a noun you've just named: The house uses two colors, one of which is Cherokee red means one of the two colors. It follows a quantifier or a number after a comma, and of whom does the same job for people. A house over a waterfall, a B2 lesson on edio.ai, teaches both with Fallingwater.
How do you use “some of which” and “all of whom”?
Put a comma after the noun, then a quantifier, of, which or whom and a verb: I took 200 photos, many of which are blurry. Our guide has three sons, all of whom work as builders. The quantifier can be all, both, most, many, some, a few, half, none, neither or a number. The scheme in A house over a waterfall on edio.ai lists them with examples.
What are some examples of “of which” and “of whom”?
Four from A house over a waterfall on edio.ai: The main house has 9,300 square feet, 4,400 of which are outdoor terraces. The living room has four main beams, three of which now have steel cables. This morning's group, most of whom were architecture students, came to study it. I invited two friends, neither of whom had ever seen a cantilever. The clause can also sit in the middle, between two commas.
What's the difference between “some of which” and “some of them”?
Some of which joins two clauses with just a comma: The house sits on concrete trays, some of which stick out over the stream. Some of them can't do that, so it needs and or a new sentence: …concrete trays, and some of them stick out… or …concrete trays. Some of them stick out… In A house over a waterfall on edio.ai, a table turns pairs of sentences into one.
Is it “most of whom” or “most of who”?
It's most of whom, never most of who: after of, people take whom. The tour had 20 people, most of whom were students. The same goes for both of whom, all of whom and none of whom. For things, use which, never that: all of which, not all of that. The wrong replies in the chat of A house over a waterfall on edio.ai make slips like these.
What is Fallingwater?
Fallingwater is a house Frank Lloyd Wright designed in 1935 for the Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh, as a weekend home over a waterfall on Bear Run in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. Builders worked from 1936 to 1938, with walls of local sandstone and concrete terraces that stick out over the stream. On July 10, 2019, UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List with seven other Wright buildings. Leona's explainer in A house over a waterfall on edio.ai tells its story.
Why did Fallingwater sag?
Experts have disagreed about the cause. Cracks appeared in 1936, almost as soon as the forms came off, because the cantilevered living room was sagging. Wright blamed extra steel that outside engineers had added, but a student's computer model in 1995 and later engineers found too little steel in the main-floor cantilever. Steel cables added to three of the four living room beams in 2001 and 2002 stopped the sag. A house over a waterfall on edio.ai gives both views.
How do I teach of which and of whom to B2 students?
Begin with two sentences and of them, which students already use: The house has two colors. One of them is red. Then swap them for which, join the sentences with a comma and add whom for people. A house over a waterfall on edio.ai follows Leona's explainer and the tour with the scheme, a choice of forms, typed clauses, a table of sentences to join and a quiz on meaning.
What's a good game for practicing of which and of whom?
Try “Class statistics”: each student asks the group one question, such as Who has a sister?, then reports the answer in one sentence: I asked ten people, four of whom have a sister. For speaking, the wheel in A house over a waterfall on edio.ai asks students to describe their family or friends with most of whom, both of whom or none of whom.
What's good homework for practicing of which and of whom?
Good homework mixes people and things, so students decide between which and whom every time, and it keeps of them as a trap. All ten homework tasks in A house over a waterfall on edio.ai check themselves, from quantifier clauses to type to Amos's tour handout and Leona's reply to a reader who calls the house impractical.
How do you practice of which and of whom one-to-one?
Talk through a photo album: the student describes pictures of a trip or a family event with …, two of whom… and …, most of which…, and the teacher asks follow-up questions. The chat in A house over a waterfall on edio.ai needs no partner: Bertrand is driving to Fallingwater, and the student describes the house to him.
Are there interactive exercises for of which and of whom?
Yes. Without an account, this page plays three parts of A house over a waterfall, a B2 lesson on edio.ai: Leona's tour with Amos, a guide; a table that joins pairs of sentences; and Bertrand's chat about the house. The rest needs an account.
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