What is the appropriate relative pronoun (in which/where)?

[Habib Khandaker]

No student ought to be put into a situation in which/ where he has to choose between his loyalty to his friends and his duty to the class.

 

[teechar]

1- It's "put in a situation".
2- Can you think of a way of making your sentence gender neutral? Not all students are males, right?!
3- What does the sentence actually mean? It sounds odd to me.

 

[PaulMatthews]

No student ought to be put into a situation in which/ where he has to choose between his loyalty to his friends and his duty to the class.

[1] No student ought to be put in a situation [in which he has to choose between his loyalty to his friends and his duty to the class ___ ].

[2] No student ought to be put in a situation [where he has to choose between his loyalty to his friends and his duty to the class ___].


Leaving aside gender-neutrality and the meaning of the sentence, "in which" and "where" are both fine and have the same meaning.

In [1] "which" is a relative pronoun with "situation" as its antecedent. "Which" functions as complement of "in", and the preposition phrase "in which" then functions as an adjunct in the relative clause.

In [2] "where" is not a pronoun but according to some an adverb, to others a preposition. "Where", just like "in which" in [1], functions as an adjunct in the relative clause.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Habib, there are several ways to make your sentence gender-neutral.

Have you tried yet? What have you come up with?