{"id":1048,"date":"2013-09-10T12:32:16","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T18:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=1048"},"modified":"2020-11-25T10:29:12","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T16:29:12","slug":"whom-abuse-is-rampant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/pronouns\/whom-abuse-is-rampant\/","title":{"rendered":"Whom<\/em> Abuse Is Rampant"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Consider the humble pronoun. It seems that fewer and fewer Americans know when to say \u201cshe\u201d or \u201che\u201d or \u201cme\u201d instead of \u201cher,\u201d \u201chim,\u201d or \u201cI.\u201d<\/p>\n

It used to be that little Gloria would run home and tell her mother, \u201cMe \u2019n\u2019 Annie saw a walrus!\u201d Whereupon her mom would say, \u201c\u00a0\u2018Annie and I,\u2019 dear.\u201d Now, alas, Gloria\u2019s mother thinks \u201cme \u2019n\u2019 Annie\u201d is just fine.<\/p>\n

So why is it that so many pronoun-challenged Americans are infatuated with whom<\/em>? It\u2019s a word that\u2019s become exotic and mysterious, and people say it when they want to sound authoritative, because even if they\u2019re misusing it, chances are their listeners won\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get technical. The pronoun who <\/em>is always subjective. Use who<\/em> wherever you would use the subjective pronouns I<\/em>, he<\/em>, she<\/em>, we<\/em>, or they<\/em>. It is correct to say Who<\/em><\/strong> wants to go?<\/em> because we would say She<\/em><\/strong> wants to go <\/em>or We<\/em><\/strong> want to go<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The pronoun whom <\/em>is always an object. Use whom<\/em> wherever you would use the objective pronouns me<\/em>, him<\/em>, her<\/em>, us<\/em>, or them<\/em>. It is not correct to say Who did you choose? <\/em>We would say Whom<\/em><\/strong> because you choose me<\/strong> <\/em>or him<\/em><\/strong> or them<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

A handy memory aid: who <\/em>= he<\/em>, whom <\/em>= him<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here is an all-too-common misuse of whom<\/em>: He is a man whom I believe can do the job<\/em>. The writer chose whom<\/em>, thinking it was the object of believe<\/em>. But look what happens when we rearrange the sentence: He is a man whom can do the job, I believe<\/em>. Obviously, the proper word is who<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Compare that with He is a man who I admire<\/em>. Because we would say I admire him<\/em>, the sentence should read He is a man whom<\/strong> I admire<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The key to mastering whom<\/em> comes down to knowing the difference between a subject and an object.<\/p>\n

POP QUIZ<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Who\/whom<\/em> do you think will win the prize?<\/p>\n

2. Who\/whom<\/em> do you think you\u2019ll vote for?<\/p>\n

3. She is someone who\/whom<\/em> I always counted on.<\/p>\n

4. She is someone who\/whom<\/em> I always said could be counted on.<\/p>\n

5. Who\/whom<\/em> are you going to believe?<\/p>\n

QUIZ ANSWERS<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Who<\/em> do you think will win the prize? (they<\/em> will)<\/p>\n

2. Whom<\/em> do you think you\u2019ll vote for? (for him<\/em>)<\/p>\n

3. She is someone whom<\/em> I always counted on. (I counted on her<\/em>)<\/p>\n

4. She is someone who<\/em> I always said could be counted on. (she<\/em> could be counted on)<\/p>\n

5. Whom<\/em> are you going to believe? (you\u2019re going to believe me<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Consider the humble pronoun. It seems that fewer and fewer Americans know when to say \u201cshe\u201d or \u201che\u201d or \u201cme\u201d instead of \u201cher,\u201d \u201chim,\u201d or \u201cI.\u201d It used to be that little Gloria would run home and tell her mother, \u201cMe \u2019n\u2019 Annie saw a walrus!\u201d Whereupon her mom would say, \u201c\u00a0\u2018Annie and I,\u2019 dear.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pronouns","category-whowhomwhoeverwhomever"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}