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?

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Am I the only one who got it? (Or am I the only one who DIDN'T get it? I'm not missing anything, am I? LOL)

[Eva]

Thanks. It seemed so easy back when I was in school and writing every day. The inter-net is really good for brushing up writing skills. Believe it or not, I used to think that diagraming sentences was fun. I was better at it than the English teacher because I had so many years of Latin.

[Boomer Geezer]

While we're on this kind of thing, does anyone know the code to remember the planets? The way I learned 'em wuz:

Mary's = Mercury

Violet = Venus

Eyes = Earth

Make = Mars

John = Jupiter

Stay = Saturn

Up = Uranus

Nights = Neptune

Perpetually = Pluto

[Boomer Geezer]

Ooops didn't see your reply :)

[Boomer Geezer]

Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Goes Willingly.

for the tolerances: Get Some Now, or Now Get Some ... depends who the instructor was LOL.

[kmiller1k]

bookmark

[T'wit]

> Do they water the cucumbers with vinegar, you think?

I'd take a can of oil and a bit of salt out to the garden too. Then in a few days you could just slice and eat -- delicious!

[T'wit]

I suspect they have forgotten there's anything but "there's" or even that it means "there IS." Thus, "there's" is thoughtlessly used for both singular and plural.

[Cool Guy]

I remember it as:
B.B.ROY Great Britin Very Good Wife.

[The Grammarian]

This looks like my kind of thread!

Even true mathematicians can make simple mistakes in math. Likewise, even true grammarians can make simple mistakes in grammar.

I can not! ;P

[rwfromkansas]

I use the "Bob" method. You stick the name Bob in for the pronoun and if a question, twist it around to make it a statement. For instance:

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

=To BOB should I give the "Offed by a Clinton Award?

This does not really help us yet since it is a question (well, you could make a good judgment from here easily, but I like going further to help ensure accuracy). Thus, we move it around to become a statement.

=I should give the "Offed by a Clinton Award" to Bob.

To Bob is a prep phrase, which means Bob is the object of the preposition. Therefore, the objective form of who/whom is used. So, "to whom" would be correct.

[rwfromkansas]

BTW, good trick. I like mine better since I think you can be a bit more sure that way since you are using a name instead of just another pronoun, but your method is very good also and new to me.

[rwfromkansas]

Turn the question into a statement. That is what I do and it is a lot easier than just leaving things as questions.

"Who/whom do you trust?"

=You do trust he. (this is obviously incorrect we can see)
=You do trust him. (him is the direct object in this sentence, necessitating the usage of the objective form of who/whom)
=You do trust whom.

Final answer:

"Whom do you trust?"

[rwfromkansas]

Of course, you don't have to use Bob. You could use Patricia Heaton, hot rwfromkansas, etc...:)

[T'wit]

> Um...well, not all public school teachers are merely "semi's." It's our job to encourage wise young people to BECOME teachers. ;-)

My mother was an English teacher in a public school. I never knew her to speak or write an unmelodious sentence. She gave up teaching to have my brother and me, and I do believe we got all the lessons she would otherwise have pounded into a few hundred high school students. I hardly know what it means to diagram a sentence -- sentence structure is so ingrained, I never paid much attention to learning the parts of speech. But I can always hear them!

For all this, I have given up on public schools. The better ones aren't worth suffering so many defects and so much cost in the system as a whole. I'd prefer that our wise young people teach in private schools that aren't subject to dumbing down, union rules, self-esteem training, political correctness, ritalin, sex education, anti-Christian bigotry and other afflictions of government schooling.

[rwfromkansas]

Impressive.

I sometimes find grammar interesting, but I utterly despised diagramming sentences. I am VERY glad I have not had to do any of that crap since coming to college. It does help see the structure of things, but the true benefit compared to just simply reading a book or something about its structure really is not that great, for me at least.

[T'wit]

> Prepositions show relationships.

Oh, yeah, I remember -- dating, going steady, getting pinned, engagement. Propositions show one-night relationships.

[aculeus]

Whom cares?

[Erasmus]

You knew it was nickEL, right?

<];^}

[Erasmus]

Careful, it's a trick! When you use the word "over", as in "the flight is over", it's an adverb, not a preposition, and it is a perfectly acceptable word (ahem)...WITH WHICH TO END A SENTENCE! (whew)

Actually, it is a predicate adjective.

Why do I remember this crap instead of important stuff? <]B^)