''While looking around the infirmary, I observed
many otherpatients whichhappened to be
suffering from the same upper respiratory
infection as I''
Isn't correct ''many others''? And ''as'' serves as a conjuction, nor a preposition, right? Otherwise the correction should be ''infection as me'', Anyone can confirm my statements?
"While looking around the infirmary, I observed many other patients [STRIKE]which [/STRIKE]
who happened to be suffering from the same upper respiratory infection as [STRIKE]I[/STRIKE]
me."
Those are great questions Guilherme. For your question about
I versus
me,
see Oxford's discussion of personal pronouns.
"Many others" could be used if you delete "patients," but I like your current wording ("many other patients") better because it is more specific.
Note that including or omitting the comma before the word
who slightly changes the meaning of the following clause. That is, if there are 10 other patients, did you (a) observe them all and they all had a related condition or (b) observe many but not all of those 10 patients, and all of the observed patients had a related condition? If the latter, which I assume is the case, the sentence is correct as it stands (i.e., without a comma before
who).
I have a related video tutorial on this issue (it is really on
that vs. which, along with changes in meaning, but the lesson essentially applies to the use of
who as well.
Please note that I tend to work in U.S. English and specifically with academic writing, both of which favor a more precise distinction between
that and
which. I have been told and have read that British English is more lenient with the distinction, and in informal writing the distinction is usually less important.
Regardless, in your case above, including or omitting the comma before
who does affect the meaning slightly, so it is at least a good exercise to think about (again, it is most likely that your current usage is correct). Hope that helps!