Ask Mike: Who and whom
Hey Guys,
People who make grammatical errors drive me nuts. Or should I say, people whom make grammatical mistakes drive me nuts? How do you know when to say who and when to say whom?
The American Heritage Book of English Usage puts it like this: “Who is used for a grammatical subject, where a nominative pronoun such as I or he would be appropriate, and whom is used as the object of a verb or preposition.”
OK, great, but what the heck’s a nominative pronoun and what’s a preposition? Basically (and I had to look it up), a nominiative pronoun acts as the subject of a verb. For example, “Who put my underpants in the freezer?” Use the word “who” if you could swap “who” for pronouns like “I” or “she.”
Contrast that to the object of a verb, also known as a direct object. That’s when you use “whom.” An example of that would be: “You saw whom near the freezer, looking all suspicious?” Use “whom” if you can replace it with “him” or “her.” If a pronoun ends with the letter “m,” it’s an object.
The Yahoo! Style Guide puts it like this: “One trick for finding the correct form is to recast the sentence in your mind, substituting he and him for who or whom. If him sounds correct, use whom.” Keep this in mind as well: “Sometimes it’s better to just rewrite a sentence to avoid a potential grammatical error or a grammatically correct but awkward or formal-sounding construction.”
Thanks for reading,
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Thank you man.
Who = He/She
Whom = Him/Her
I could never understand why this is such a difficult concept. Isn’t basic grammar being taught in grade school anymore?
You also use “whom” if it is an indirect object pronoun, such as,
I gave it to her. To whom? To her.
Though I do agree that proper placement of correct term be used where needed,
I may not approve of Answerers, using that or this topic as a method of answering users question, in order to correct their grammar only, and still not answer the question , in other wording, deliberately go around spell checking everyones queries, and use that reference as answer to question, not question itself,
helping is one thing, ridiculing is another
What if some can’t help it? What if the person has a learning disablity (such as Dyslexia) and isn’t open about it and someone gets on them with out considering that lots of people have a learning disablility?
Sorry if there are spelling and other mistakes…. :/ I know there are probably some.
Thanks, Mike, this is really helpful. As for the person who asked about dyslexia — that has never been an excuse for not learning, and dyslexia has nothing to do with that person’s intelligence or ability to learn.
The object of the preposition (e.g., of, from, to, for) can be determined when used in conjunction (e.g., and) with another word by omitting the other word and the conjunction.
EX: “…for him and I…” is often said by so-called professional newscasters. By omitting “him and” we have “for I”, which is clearly incorrect as the I is the object of a preposition. And object first person pronoun is “me.”
Thus the correct phrase is “…for him and me…”
on grammar, the most important is the meaning and purpose of the writer should have on the target reader
This usually comes from YOU being corrected on it when you were younger and now you see others getting away with it.
Who is the nominative and Whom is the “not nominative”. But English lost grammatical case a long time ago. We have a remnant of the genitive case which is used only for possessives. and this is the apostrophe s. It is actually considered a clitic now as it is placed at the end of phrases. Like before you would say “The Queen’s of England Castle” but now you say “The Queen of England’s castle.” since case does not exist in English anymore, WHOM is irrelevant therefore it is perfectly fine to use WHO is all cases.
Grammar isnt really taught in school anymore…well the basics for it but not indirect/direct/proposition and all those fun-annoying-terminology.
I learned grammar a bit in my french and portuguese class…never for english.
“Or should I say, people whom make grammatical mistakes drive me nuts? How do you know when to say who and when to say whom?”
It should be “who” make grammatical errors. Who is used for the subject, while whom is the direct object or the object of a preposition.
I didn’t *really* know the difference until I studied Latin – every noun in Latin has a “who” form and a “whom” form (and a “whose” form and a “to whom” form and a “by whom” form, as well as a couple of others depending on the word – it’s great).
But, now that I know the difference, I don’t feel any satisfaction in putting it to use. Why? Because “whom” is dead in all but the most stiff and formal courtroom English, and the classroom of the most pedantic English teacher. I feel that, given a few decades, it will go the way of our second-person singular pronoun (thou/thee/thy/thine) and the true second-person plural (ye/you/your/yours).
Is there a rule or some way to know when to use “then” and “than”?
Thanks -
Wade
Actually, That principal doesn’t work sometimes.
Take the statement that was suggested in the first paragraph.
People who make grammatical mistakes drive me nuts.
neither He/She or Him/Her work in this sentence!
You seriously need to get out of your sheltered life and grasp the real world , if someones insignificant little grammar mistakes drive you nuts i would hate to see what way you would handle a real problem .. How sad
How to use Who & Whom
Who – e.g. Who is that?
Whom (which) – e.g. Most Tudors lived in large castles, many of whom still stand today.
I had an English teacher in high school who told us we shouldn’t worry about that since who can be used for all cases, and that there is no longer the need to distinguish. Well… I don’t really know if she’s right… then again, I taught her grammar more than she taught me…
Grammar nazis drive ME nuts. If you can understand the person, then leave them alone. Seriously, who would say something like “For whom did you buy presents today, my fine-feathered friend?”
“Who” and “whom” are just examples of how dumb the English language can truly be. Let go of it, you nostalgic people.
My English professor assures me that pretty soon, whom will be obsolete. It’s just not used anymore.
I hate when people get grammar wrong, especially if they use apostrophes for plurals like CD’s instead of CDs!
I think those who grow up in England (or any English speaking country) should be able to pick up grammar naturally so it doesn’t need to be taught, although a lot of native speakers grow up with people speaking it incorrectly.
Doing latin at school has taught me about the cases, the subjunctive and how different constructions work etc. but I think latin would have been a lot easier had we been taught English grammar.
LLAMAS DRIVE ME NUTS!
i don’t understand that ?
The english language is pretty loose and diverse. We have changed our writing rules and some grammatical rules and freedoms have come and gone throughout the passage of time.
Read the BIble, then read Dickens, then read something modern.
If someone is on the net and just trying to make a point, I don’t care how good their grammar is. Why should I?
I enjoy authors who are very good writers but use sentence fragments. Sometimes the fragments are to make an emotional impact or have a certain feel to how you read the text etc.
I’m not too concerned, personally. Language is one of those things that changes over time, so does grammar and the written language.
As long as I can understand it, I’m not too put out.
Grammar and spelling nazi’s annoy me more than people who do not spell well or make grammatical errors.
Especially being someone who can write well, it is extra annoying watching someone pick me apart for a single spelling error. What’s the point.
It seems more like a control issue to me. Controlling people on the net. In my experience. But, I’m just one person, and that’s just my opinion.
Always remember: “Who,” is for humans, that, is for “things.”
I agree totally but I know that I used to be really good in
grammar but because of health issues, really bad now.
@Jdman:
In that case, the “who” is plural, not singular. It can be replaced with “they”, provided that you treat the clause as a whole sentence:
“People who make grammatical mistakes drive me nuts.”
-> “They make grammatical mistakes”, not “them make grammatical mistakes”.
Of course, these things are naturally more confusing in subordinate clauses, especially to those who only speak (modern) English. There is a reason why this has persisted so long, though. There was a time when English was more heavily inflected than it is now, and even the common folk said “whom” and probably used it correctly at least 90% of the time.
yes good discussion what a who and whom
Thanks for the effort. Now I am one step closer in avoiding this mistake.
I don’t know why Americans have so much trouble with this. I am from France and we were taught this once, same thing with “its” and “it’s” and we got it. Why can’t Americans get it?
It’s = short for “it is”
Its = possessive pronoun
Do you say “I like the drawing, its very nice” or do you say “This is my ring, it’s brilliance is stunning!” NO!! You can replace it by “the drawing, it IS very nice’ so that’s “it’s”‘; and you cannot say “my ring, it is brilliance” therefore use “its”. Problem solved! =D
Now among those who read your statement is there anyone who did not get it?? —Yeah that’s who + who, no “whoms” here!I don’t know the fancy stuff to explain it because I never learned English grammar but I know intuitively which one to use. Whomever does not get it, I guess you could try and find a teacher who will be able to explain it to you. But if there’s anyone who doesn’t get it, I do wonder whom!
P
Yes I am showing off!
who really gives a cr.p? as long as the message gets across. anyway, great works of lit always aren’t grammatically great.
I don’t really think it matters AT ALL whether a person uses who or whom. As long as you know what it means. It’s really not that big of a deal whether someone uses whom correctly.
I remember it as
“Who did it to whom?
Who does the action
Whom recieves the action
My aunt, Professor Emeritus of English at Belmont Abbey College, taught me this way: When questioning the who/whom dilemma, simply ask yourself if you need an object or a subject. Rephrase the statement if needed to gain clarity. For wxample: I don’t know who/whom to believe can be restated as I believe…_____? Clearly, WHOM makes the most sense, thus: I don’t know WHOM I believe.
Let’s add some popular entertainment references :
Who’s On First – Abbot and Costello
Doctor Who – British science fiction television show
The Who – British rock group popular 30 years ago
The Guess Who – Canadian rock group popular 30 years ago
Who Can It Be Now? – song by Australian rock group Men At Work
I hate that too, I make grammatical errors though too… But what irritates me is that how these kids now of days think they’re going to get some where with saying ‘swag’ and abbreviating every freaking word. It’s like, what the hell? You can’t get a job if you naturally can’t spell correctly. (I heard a chick once said to me, no one likes writing out the entire word or typing it out)… And I told her, that no one will hire you if you’re going to think or do that kind of stuff, unless maybe mcdonalds… And honestly, what kind of career choice is that? Not a very good one! I’m 16 years old and I find how people talk these day’s utterly irritating. Though, when people don’t know when to use “who” or “whom” doesn’t really irritate me. Maybe it would irritate me if they were trying to write a book and it was like that. But when people normally talk, they should talk normal. (No offense to grown people who work at mcdonalds, my dad manages a pizza place and he makes horrible cash… So, I speak from experience… Because he’s made a horrible career choice).
Who put the dog out? With whom am I speaking with?
Are you with the other whom in this theory?
I would say that the vowel persists in that.
The vowel is the indentured slave and I have no idea whom that may be….hee…another point…the rule doesn’t always apply.
Peace. I don’t know with whom I am speaking, yet, I’ll let whomever figure it out.
are you seriously saying that this kind of thing drives you nuts?
you need to get a life,there are real things to worry about
Has someone changed the rules about singular nouns and plural verbs or vice versa? I am referring to nouns such as “the group” are???? I was taught that group is a singular noun. There are many such examples everywhere today. Have the rujles changed?
the existence of this article makes me feel that other people know more english than americans
The best way I remember this is if the verb is being used by who/whom then use “who”. If not, then use whom.
Who= present tense//who are you
Whom=past tense//to whom it may concern
Besides, it only mattered in English class. Gee, just use the spell check more often and I am happy wtih what is wrttien.
Since you are commenting about your ‘pet peeve,’ your personal postion – along with the examples given – are not objective, but subjective.
In short, while your intent seems innoculous, your ‘pet peeve’ only reflects your exclusive qualms, thus failing to address the actual problems: the ever-diminishing lack of a quality education due to budgetary issues; and, moreover, the historic educational disparaties as a by-product of 320 years of racial and class segregation.
I find it best not to use the word at all. It is no longer considered incorrect to use “who” in all instances.
“whom” is just old or older english. you don’t need it period.
I know we all have stuf that piss’s the shit out of us. Mine is when some fool writes a dollar amount like this 25$. It just drives me up a fing wall.
Grammar is defined by those who speak it. More often than not, grammar rules that define ‘correct’ speech and writing in the modern day have been at some point in history derided as horrifying linguistic novelties and many will in mere decades once again find themselves in the gutters.
Further, many are the result of forcing Latin rules (*cough* split infinitives *cough*) on a language to which latin rules have no business being applied. And before I get comment on Norman invasions and French being a romance language, etc, etc, etc, most of the absurd rules foisted upon modern speakers by Latin advocates were done in the 1700′s and 1800′s after centuries without a word of non-Anglicised French in the royal court and centuries more of open war with France. More rules yet have been adopted or discarded seemingly out of nowhere because a grammarian thought they were a good idea, though no one to date had EVER followed them. Often said grammarians even stated explicitly that, in effect, they were calling it a rule based only on the fact that they liked it better.
I know how to use who/whom, its/it’s, to/too/two, aisle/isle per the Oxford (aside from unconscious typos). But having studied a good bit on the subject, I find this a valuable thing to teach a child in school, but something we need to seriously stop getting so twisted up about outside of academics. In short, use it as a learning grammar so that we are all mostly on the same page and can communicate with each other, then let… it…. go.
Your ‘perfect English’ would offend a grammar teacher in Victorian England and your grandchildren will inevitably find it stilted and outdated. You are fighting a battle that has in almost all historical cases been soundly lost by your camp. Heck, if you read the intro to the unabridged Oxford, even THAT book doesn’t suggest a proscriptive grammar.
Apart from using “whom” in the context “To whom it may concern” I would never ever use it. So what if its grammatically incorrect? The word is so seldom used in normal conversation that I would expect to be ridiculed if I tried it.
Language is constantly evolving and developing and certain unnecessary words such as “whom” are used only by ministers, lawyers, English examiners and die hard nerds.
i never really understood the different usage of the words who and whom. thanks for explaining it. now i correct the english letters from a german girl. and sometimes it is difficult to differentiate certain words into correct phrasing and sentences. so i told her if it sounds right it is right. as most english people do not use correct grammar or english ..they mumble.and slur their words, and sometimes incomprehensable to english people.
Whom= functions as direct/indirect object, object of the preposition. (can be replaced with him once re-organizing the sentence?
For example: To whom does this concern?
It concerns HIM.
And for Who= functions as subject or predicative nomnitive. (can be replaced with he most of the time when re-organizing the sentence.)
For example: Who has this book?
He has this book.
There are few things more annoying that people pointing out spelling and grammar mistakes in informal situations (official documents is different, you’d make an effort to use a checker and proof read it).
For me it is the equivalent of someone in a pub with a strong regional accent, and someone pointing out that he doesn’t speak properly. It is petty, pedantic and incredibly boring. It really doesn’t matter and people who point it out should get a life.
Grr! I hate English!
What’s interesting to me as a linguist is that people say things like “she gave it to Alex and I.” It happens because people are taught that the “right” way to say things is with “I,” and they don’t get the message that it’s only *sometimes* “right.”
If we just leave language alone and stop obsessing about sounding “right” or “educated,” everyone will have better grammar. Power to natural speech.
Love,
CarolAnn
Not the best at grammar, I still chuckle over a cartoon I’d seen in the Reader’s Digest years ago. It had an owl in a tree, saying, “whom? Whom?”
Tried to find a copy online to link to without success.
I think I would’ve said:
“..whom did you see loitering about the refrigerator”..?
Using proper grammar is necessary, but I’m not a stickler. I have found myself purposefully dumbing it down a bit in certain situations, and with certain people who appear to glaze over and fade away when they are confronted with ‘proper’ English.
I don’t think think I will ever reduce myself to “..I ain’t got none”, or “..t’wern’t nothin’”.. but it is important to connect with ones audience, lest we be audience-less..yes?
Who drives whom nuts?
In addition, ‘whom’, under the usage of being a relative pronoun, can be used in a sentence which reflects on the past. For example, the man, ‘whom’ i visited yesterday, just died.
Agreed! Obviously it’s not ENGLISH that’s being taught in schools these days (UK/America etc). I’d like to know what happened to ‘me’ and ‘you’ It’s all ‘myself’ and ‘yourself’ these days It’s as if people who don’t know how to use the English language are trying to look posh, by using more complicated words than is necessary. Personally I think a lot of it is down to emailing and texting. Together with how to write and speak not being taught. And it DOES matter. English is a wonderful language, and is there to be USED CORRECTLY!!
NO ONE USES THE WORD WHOM!!!!!! IT’S ONLY IN THE BIBLE!!!
I didn’t *really* know the difference until I studied Latin – every noun in Latin has a “who” form and a “whom” form (and a “whose” form and a “to whom” form and a “by whom” form, as well as a couple of others depending on the word – it’s great).
But, now that I know the difference, I don’t feel any satisfaction in putting it to use. Why? Because “whom” is dead in all but the most stiff and formal courtroom English, and the classroom of the most pedantic English teacher. I feel that, given a few decades, it will go the way of our second-person singular pronoun (thou/thee/thy/thine) and the true second-person plural (ye/you/your/yours)
Bullshit comment! You must be American to assume that! I know of many people (including me) that use “whom” so that’s not at all true, you need to get your facts straight. Further more, don’t be so up yourself, so what if your learning Latin. The word “whom” is very much taught in English school today. I can’t stand people like the knob at the top. I can’t stand it. Get off your high horse mate! Not everyone is as perfect as you. (That’s sarcasm) You need to let your airs and graces down a notch. A hole
knock knock,
whose there?
who
to who?
no it’s to whom.
Mike would you happen to be a truck driver who answers the questions on your down time?
Who is it? For whom is it? Whom generally follows a preposition or implied preposition. Try Prentice-Hall Handbook for Writers, if it still exists
While I’m sure that more and more people have become lazy when it comes to grammar, there are plenty of people have a legitimate learning disabilities and no amount of working on grammar will change their problems.
I wish that some people would be more understanding.
when you ask “who” the answer is he.
when you ask “whom” the answer is him. make sense?
Who?? Whom?? Him??? he’s a she!
Language has been evolving for centuries and continues to do so. What would we have to say about anything if language hadn’t evolved? That includes agreed upon rules taking form as well as adaptations to our language. Take text messaging for example. It follows a different set of standards yet those who use it can easily dicier the meaning with a little practice. How about cultures or languages that don’t even use the words “who” or “whom” or may not even have an equivalent to those words? Style really isn’t that important to conveying a message clearly. If you can put language in a bottle and keep the recipe from changing, then kudos to you, I suppose.
I accept that nobody likes to be corrected, especially in public.
However if you write a post about the correct use of words, misuse a word (“swamp” instead of “swap”) and somebody points it out to you, is it good practice to edit your original post and delete the comment that pointed it out?
What a shame you chose not to amend the other sentence mentioned.
“You saw whom near the freezer, looking all suspicious?”
Leaving aside “looking all suspicious”, in what circumstances would anyone twist a sentence to ask a question like that?
“Whom did you see near the freezer, acting in a suspicious manner?”
Even the weakest legal procedural drama would edit that from a script.
‘I could never understand why this is such a difficult concept. Isn’t basic grammar being taught in grade school anymore? Comment posted on May 16th, 2012 at 4:17 am by Peter’
Peter, subject yourself to one segment of ‘Judge Judy’ and you’ll hear the answer to that sad rhetorical question! You’ll find people whose life long dream is to use the word ‘be’ as a verb. But I’m afraid it’s a losing battle when global media fails to monitor its own grammatical errors as we mimic what we hear and see. Nevertheless, I do share your frustration, especially from the other side of the Atlantic!
Thank you so much.
Who: I, she, he
Whom: him, her
I would venture to suggest that although you are correct in your definition the use of “People whom make grammatical mistakes etc” is not correct and a mistake in itself. Do what you yourself advise and read it out loud and you will find it does not sound right. I wonder do you say “a hotel” or “an hotel?” Mind you I am a stuffy Englishman and I could be wrong.
People who make grammatical errors bother you, yet you had to look up the meaning of the nominative case?
This is wrong, another case of American English getting it wrong…Just as words such as ‘mit’ or ‘zu’ change the subject in German, this is all that happens to who in English – you only need to use ‘whom’ when using ‘with whom’ or ‘from whom’, ‘to whom’ etc. …It really annoys me when people correct others with ‘whom’ pretending to know best when it is actually possible to overuse whom, as if the word who does not have a purpose
I am English but spent 15 years in the USA, so I have adopted a certain forgiveness for the differences in spelling and grammar, but there are so many phrases that just drive me round the bend.
I cringe when someone says “don’t got to” for example, or when a tv reporter keeps saying “you betcha”.
The most common grammatical error today by people with college degrees are those who say “have came” and “have ran.” We learned to conjugate verbs in the third grade. Actually most of us were 7 years old going in the 3rd grade as in our school district if we passed a test when they added the 12 th grade we skipped a grade. I was never in the second. We learned back then that the verbs come, run and become are 3 of the verbs in the English language where the pass tense is one thing but the present tense and the past participle are the same. Yes back at 7 years old we coud say past participle. Schools should spend less time with kids on computers and more time teaching them how to conjugate verbs. Actually I agree with some that say real education is liberal arts. Everything else is just job training and that included computers.
Well, it would take a Yank to bugger the English language up ! Winston Churchill once said that The Americans and British shared a similar language, but different cultures – and his mother was American !
Dr. Phil – True, but “whose” is used for both.
So Dumb vs SmartyPantz – “Whomever does not get it” is wrong, since “whoever” is not the object of the clause. It should be “whoever does not get it”.
I don’t care about people using “who” for “whom”, but I *do* care about people using “whom” for “who, because those are the ones trying to look smart, and failing
As to your earlier question, as to whether I say “I like the drawing, its very nice”, that is impertinent. I don’t *say* punctuation. When I speak, you can’t tell whether or not I’m putting an apostrophe before my S.
Now, do I write that? No, because I was taught the difference. But, there is some difference between “learning” and “being taught” – you learn to speak your language naturally, but you have to be taught to read and write in its artificial printed form.
Thanks for translating that for me!!! I’ve even looked it up before because I was wondering the same thing for work, and the answers given might as well have been in Greek as much as I could understand them. This makes so much better sense and is so simple!
@Dacey – Who’s on a high horse? I’d say it’s you. Everyone should learn a foreign language, and Latin is no better or worse than Spanish or Italian.
So what if I’m American? You don’t speak the same English that my European ancestors spoke four hundred years ago, either.
just use who you’ll be right about 80% of the time.
A common rule for determining whether “who” or “whom” is right is to substitute “she” for “who,” and “her” for “whom,” and see which sounds the better. Take the sentence, “He met a woman who they said was an actress.” Now if “who” is correct then “she” can be used in its place. Let us try it. “He met a woman she they said was an actress.” That instantly rings false. It can’t be right. Hence the proper usage is “whom.”
Thanks a lot for clearing the point.
I am just not understanding why this bothers everyone so much. That is what I completely do not understand. If it is not personally hurting you in some way than who really cares..
So Mike I really avoid to read this featured article since one week or more (but I never ignore to read any of yours). Today I read it and I can see that I was really going to miss it!
The difference you give between ‘who’ and ‘whom’ is really important and sometimes I have done this mistake myself….so thanks for it…my good wishes.
When should you say “that” and when should you say “which?” “The dog that is hungry,” or “The dog which is hungry?”
wow! you guy’s really shouldn’t worry.
who cares about who and whom?
isn’t there better thing’s we can be talking about?
lol : )
“You saw whom near the freezer, looking all suspicious?”
Dear Lord, what a horrible sentence. I don’t know anybody who would use such a phrase. Try “Whom did you see near the freezer looking suspicious?” And frankly, most people would just use who there because that is the way the language is evolving. Whom is generally only used after a preposition now in modern speech and even that is disappearing. It Whom will probably be gone in the next fifty years or so which makes sense considering it is a leftover from a case system that hasn’t been used in hundreds of years.
i appreciate that you like the right grammer ,,,,but do not go nuts because not all people you speak to are Americans or even British. every one makes mistakes. the bible says ““Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you”
A piece of advice for grammar freaks, make sure to answer the question directly related to the topic before/after pointing out mistakes, and do it in a polite manner, cause it aint easy to differentiate between troll and those who are sincere. Also remember, there’s such a thing called typo’s.
My personal opinion is that if it isn’t something important like a career/book/school assignment, but rather something miscellanous like texting or yahoo answers, then there is no reason to focus on one’s grammar PROVIDED the message is understood.
Like for example, when texting to a friend or using something miscellanous like Y!A, the asker has the right to type how he wishes, so long as the message is brought across.
If I were ask a question and a person points out a mistake before/after DIRECTLY ANSWERING the question, then i would happily take that in stride. But if the answerer is just pointing it out mistakes but not answering, i would ignore it and take it rude and arrogant.
If i were to be heonst, i don’t ralely care aobut slgiht garmamr msiateks, baceuse just as Jennifer Chenault said “What if the person has a learning disablity (such as Dyslexia)”
I mean it wulond’t dirve me nuts if a pesorn made a slgiht garmarmr msiatke like that, but that’s just my opoinin.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, t he olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rgh it pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
I do use correct grammar when speaking and writing, but who vs. whom doesn’t bother me when used incorrectly as much as some other common grammatical errors do.
We all know what those common errors are, but here are some just to list some that really bother me:
They’re/their/there
Your/you’re
Then/than
Threw/through
Lose/loose
Who and whom is a minor thing, in my opinion. When people start saying things like: “Your wrong. There not compatible, even though they went threw a lot together, their better off separated then together.”
Whoops, accidentally hit submit. To finish what I’m saying, when people start saying things like the above, it’s just painful to read.
I agree with Annie. I consider myself an English savant, meaning I can make it sound OK, I just have no clue why. Oh I went through high school, and college, the English Prof literally wrote the book. Lord I just had a shudder remembering …
Spelling I have a much better grasp of, which muffle much now assures me was a gross waste of time. Thanks Muff!
Your focused on grammar, when most people can’t even spell simple words! Yet Firefox has spell check built right into it! Also what scares me is some education systems do not take off marks for spelling errors! I’m glad my Daughter was taught the way I was.
Nick opines that….. “ whom is dead in all but the most stiff and formal courtroom English, and the classroom of the most pedantic English teacher.” English use historically expands and degrades (viz. ‘texting’ ) so we should continue to expect the ‘could’nt be bothered’ cohort to reduce the subtelty and precision fo the language. “Stiff..formal and pedantic” pejoritives are the last resort of the lazy intellect.