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Forums => English & Linguistics => Topic started by: Mr. Anderson on November 26, 2005, 06:27:00 PM

Title: who and whom
Post by: Mr. Anderson on November 26, 2005, 06:27:00 PM

When do you use who and when do you use whom?

Title: who and whom
Post by: Jonathon on November 27, 2005, 06:03:04 PM

Use who as a subject and whom as an object. :P  

Title: who and whom
Post by: Mr. Anderson on November 27, 2005, 07:42:49 PM

That would be helpful if I was more familiar with the parts of a sentence.

Title: who and whom
Post by: Porter on November 27, 2005, 07:55:33 PM

I can only imagine the shame you just brought upon your family.

Title: who and whom
Post by: Mr. Anderson on November 27, 2005, 09:13:05 PM

I was adopted.  It's the only logical explanation.

Title: who and whom
Post by: Porter on November 28, 2005, 06:54:26 AM

Nice hair grafts to fit in with the family, then.  

Title: who and whom
Post by: pooka on November 28, 2005, 07:10:47 AM

Subjects:  I, you, he, she, who
Object:    Me, you, him, her, whom
Possesive: My, your, his, her, who's
Pronominal
Adjective: Mine, yours, his, hers, whose

At least, I think that's right.  I know when to use who's and whose, I just don't know if I put them in the right slots in this chart.  Anyway, I haven't noticed you having problems with any of the other pronouns, so you intuitive grasp of grammar is probably okay.

Title: who and whom
Post by: Jonathon on November 28, 2005, 08:39:58 AM

If you could replace the word with him or them, then use whom. If you could replace it with he or they, use who. Some sentences require a change in word order to know. Here are some examples (http://www.ku.edu/~edit/whom.html).

Title: who and whom
Post by: Mr. Anderson on November 28, 2005, 09:44:41 AM

Thanks.  I've recently been hearing "whom" used at the beginning of a sentence, and it just didn't sound right.

"Whom can we turn to in a time of crisis?"

I would say it like this:

"To whom can we turn in a time of crisis?"

Is that grammatically correct?

Title: who and whom
Post by: Brinestone on November 28, 2005, 09:52:58 AM

Both are correct. The preposition, to is at the end of the clause, "Whom can we turn to," of the first one, whereas you have put it before its object in the second one. Some old-school stickler grammarians frown on prepositions at the end of a sentence, but the general consensus nowadays is that it's silly to forbit it when English syntax makes it very awkward sometimes to force the preposition to come before the end.

Title: who and whom
Post by: kojabu on November 28, 2005, 10:41:57 AM

Heh, in my ling class my professor was doing an example of a question formed from a sentence, such as Joe gave the book to Sally. But she used who instead of whom in Joe gave the book to who and everyone gave her flac (flack?) for it.  

Title: who and whom
Post by: pooka on November 28, 2005, 12:48:39 PM

I believe it's phlaque. ;)

Title: who and whom
Post by: Mr. Anderson on November 28, 2005, 02:46:36 PM

>.<

I had some phlaque between my teeth.