Wednesday, December 15, 2010

"To whom," brother! "To whom," brother! "To whom," brother!

One of the more confused issues of grammar is the "Who" vs. "Whom" usage. "Who" is nominative case, while "whom" is accusative case.

Rule: Use the he/him method to decide which word is correct.
  • he = who
  • him = whom
Examples:
Who/Whom wrote the letter?
He wrote the letter. Therefore, who is correct.

For who/whom should I vote?
Should I vote for him? Therefore, whom is correct.

We all know who/whom pulled that prank.
This sentence contains two clauses: We all know and who/whom pulled that prank. We are interested in the second clause because it contains the who/whom. He pulled that prank. Therefore, who is correct. (Are you starting to sound like a hooting owl yet?)

We want to know on who/whom the prank was pulled.
This sentence contains two clauses: We want to know and the prank was pulled on who/whom. Again, we are interested in the second clause because it contains the who/whom. The prank was pulled on him. Therefore, whom is correct.

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5 Comments:

At 15 December, 2010 06:50, Anonymous Lance said...

Two much greater crises:

1) Difference between your and you're.

2) Hyperusage of apostrophes
(or as some would type: apostrophe's)

 
At 15 December, 2010 08:07, Blogger samurai said...

I enjoy these English lessons... 8) I am driving friends crazy when i refer to myself with a lower case "i" in the middle of sentences now. ;-)

 
At 31 December, 2010 12:19, Blogger GUNNY said...

Really, Samurai, that's a great bit. What if Christians swam upstream by demonstrating "dying to self" with the lowercase "i" in writing.

Think i should join You in that endeavor?

 
At 03 January, 2011 14:35, Blogger samurai said...

Gunny - i leave that up to you sir. 8) I am quite certain that you are doing so aside from your expressions in the written word however. 8)

 
At 31 August, 2013 20:41, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"To whom brother!"

Great movie reference!!

 

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