WHO or WHOM? A 90% Trick

Self | 30APR03 | bannie

[bannie]

In a recent thread, we discussed teachers' various abilities/inabilities. With the banter about math "blocks," I had to start calling people on the frequent mis-usage of the pronoun "that."

I teased others--and I hope the understood my playful intent! Even true mathematicians can make simple mistakes in math. Likewise, even true grammarians can make simple mistakes in grammar. I only made note because of the subject of the thread (An English teacher who was having trouble passing a required math test).

In the thread, I mentioned that I could give a quick-fix lesson on how to determine whether one should use the pronoun "who" or the pronoun "whom."

The Rule:
WHO = SUBJECTIVE
WHOM = OBJECTIVE
or...
While "who" holds the grammatical position of a SUBJECT, "whom" holds the grammatical position of an OBJECT.
Subject = the "doer." Object = the DIRECT OBJECT or the INDIRECT OBJECT or the OBJECT of a preposition...the "do-ee."

THE TRICK:

IF replacing the who/whom in question with HE--simply because it SOUNDS BETTER--use WHO.

IF replacing the who/whom in question with HIM--simply because it SOUNDS BETTER--use WHOM.

IE:
With the question:

To who/whom should I give the "Offed by a Clinton" Award?

Try replacing the space with each, "he" and "him."
Although it's not totally "sensical," the better sounding choice is...

To HIM should I give...

(more clearly, Should I give the "Offed by a Clinton" award to HIM?
SOOOOOooooo...since "HIM" = "WHOM,"

the correct "who/whom-ness" of the question should be:

To WHOM should I give...?

IE:
Who/Whom was the oldest goat in the pool?

Try replacing the space with each, "he" and "him."

It makes much more sense to the ear to replace the who/whom with:

He was the oldest...

than with:

Him was the oldest...

SOOOOOoooooo....since "HE" = "WHO"...

The answer is...WHO was the oldest goat in the pool?

[bannie]

A goat is not a whom or a him, sorry.

HAHAHAHA! My "goat" was a human Democrat. :-)

A messy person can be called a "pig" and be without a curly tail and a snout: A dirty old fool can be called a "goat" and be without horns and a hairy back.

My goat was a who/whom and a he/him.

[bannie]

I bow to your wisdom.

:-)

[jejones]

Who is this "noone" guy I keep hearing about. example: I went to the door but noone was there.

I think he was the lead singer for Herman's Hermits.... :)

[gcruse]

I've gotten away from using 'he' as default, too. Some of feminism is right.

[CharacterCounts]

Personally, I get upset when people use words the meanings of which they clearly neither understand nor can be bothered to look up.

My personal pet peeve is when people use the word litterally when they should be using figuratively.

[NCLaw441]

Isn't it "they" who are doing the reminding? And isn't the proper usage "whom" as the object of the preposition of?

[j_tull]

Aw, c'mon Diddle! You well know that most of us do that on purpose!

[T Minus Four]

A bird flew ________ a cloud

Oh, that's good. I usually know when it's right or wrong, I just forget WHY! Now I can help explain it better to my 5th grader.

see my post #125 :-)

[bannie]

The rule is simple: it's the Who, not the Whom whom once wrote "Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)"

OY!!! All I got out of this is the error: "...not the Whom WHO once wrote..."

[texasbluebell]

One of my main pet peeves is the it's/its apostrophe issue.

You see it wrong everywhere.

I found this little ditty years ago, and had misplaced it till now.

"The possessive of it is just its
But its usage gives people the fits
They expect to see
An apostrophe
But you shorten it is when it's it's."

(Was written by someone named Robert Bagby.)

[jejones]

Yes, but we're talking about the object of the preposition "of"; "they" is the subject of remind. So it really is "Whom do they remind you of?" If you give in to the arrant nonsense up with which Winston Churchill would not put and recast it as "Of whom do they remind you?" perhaps it is clearer that "whom" is called for. Also, the advice of the original post still holds. English speakers wouldn't say "Do they remind you of I?"

[T Minus Four]

My personal pet peeve is when people use the word litterally when they should be using figuratively

Oh, I could just literally DIE when people do that!

[jejones]

Well...after one bourbon, one scotch, and one beer, one might well make grammatical mistakes. :)

[Diddle E. Squat]

Let me see if I understand. (A bird flew understand a cloud.) It is wrong to say "I am relieved that this flight is finally over." because "A bird flew over a cloud" makes sense? (A bird flew sense a cloud.)

[CharacterCounts]

It's even worse when they use litterally instead of literally.

[VermiciousKnid]

I find that the affect/effect problem is the most difficult, even for those of us who are otherwise pretty good with the King's English.

Anybody remember sentence diagramming? I used to love doing them; they were like puzzles to me. Too bad they don't teach it anymore.

Regards,

[T Minus Four]

go figgure :-)

[NCLaw441]

I can live with the situational use of "her" or "she" depending on context much easier than the evasive "they" and "their" construction.

[Fifth Business]

For example: the use of "ironically" to mean "co-incidentally"; of "only" to mean "few" (as in "he was one of the only men to survive the attack"); of "unique" to mean "rare" (as opposed to "the only one of its kind"), or of "disinterested" to mean "uninterested".

Some of my pet peeves--"decimated" to mean "completely destroyed," "penultimate" to mean "apex," and "presently" to mean "at present."

And then there's the use of an ellipsis where a dash, comma, or semi-colon should be used.

[bannie]

Credit should be extended to Freeper "Ditter." He made a query.

:D