Is "A list which its items are..." wrong?

Question

I'm writing a piece of documentation for a program, I want to specify the return value of a function. For sake of simplicity, I've assumed here that the function always returns a list with two items inside (i.e. [1, 2]). For the "Return" part of the documentation, I need a sentence which indicates that

The return type is "list"
Items of the list are 1 and 2

What I wrote was

Return: A list which its items are 1 and 2

But one of my colleagues believes that

Return: A list the items of which are 1 and 2

is a better representation.

I want to know that:

Is the first sentence wrong?
Is the second form preferred?

The possessive of which is whose. Please use a dictionary. There is no such thing as "which its". The word for that is "whose". — RegDwigнt, Sep 10 '18 at 12:31

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 10 '18 at 11:55

1

The first expression has incorrect syntax. I would say: “a list, whose items are 1 and 2...”

answered Sep 10 '18 at 11:55

MotherBrain

232

I agree. The use of "whose" does not imply that this list is a person. – GEdgar Sep 10 '18 at 12:17
Yes GEdgar - yet another oddity of the English language! – MotherBrain Sep 13 '18 at 10:41

Is "A list which its items are..." wrong?

1 Answers1