what: As what is both antecedent and relative the use of the antecedent with this word is wrong. “All what he said was false” should be corrected by the elision of “all.” What is used only in reference to things, whereas that can be said of persons, animals, and things, and can be substituted for it.
what was, what was not: “What was” and “what wasn’t my surprise” may both be used correctly to express considerable surprise, and with almost the same meaning, the one expression differing from the other but by a shade in sense. “How great was my surprise,” and “What surprise could equal or be greater, than mine,” would about paraphrase the usages. The former sentence implies great surprise, but the possibility (though unreferred to) of a greater; the latter indicates that there could not be any greater surprise.
wheels in the (or his) head, to have: A slang phrase used as a substitute for “to be eccentric, peculiar, or erratic.”
whence: “Whence came you” is sufficient and correct. “From whence” is pleonastic, the whence being nothing less than “from where” and thus including the from. Compare [THENCE].
where: The prepositions to or at should never end a sentence beginning with where. Such use is vulgar and illiterate. Avoid: “Where has he gone to?” “Where was I at?”
whereabouts: This word, plural in form, but singular in construction, always takes a verb, in the singular. “Husband and wife disappeared; their whereabouts is a mystery.”
wherever: This word, although a combination of two words “where” and “ever” is not spelt “where ever” when written as a solid word. Then it drops the first “e” in “ever” and is correctly “wherever.”
whether: Avoid such a locution as “whether or no,” which is rapidly gaining ground, and say instead the preferable phrase, “whether or not.” Whether properly means “which of two.” Therefore, in expressing doubt, make mention merely of the exact thing doubted without using the word whether unless it be to introduce an alternative subject of doubt or a comparison of doubts. Just as either, which is strictly applicable to two only is wrongly applied to more than two, so is whether, which is a contraction of which of either.
which. Compare [THAT, WHO].