{"id":1641,"date":"2014-09-16T13:09:17","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T19:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=1641"},"modified":"2020-11-25T10:53:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T16:53:59","slug":"rules-and-preferences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/pronouns\/rules-and-preferences\/","title":{"rendered":"Rules and Preferences"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There were fervent protests from readers reacting to \u201cOld Superstitions Die Hard.\u201d The article established that the relative pronoun <em>that<\/em> refers to people as well as to things and has done so for centuries.<\/p>\n<p>Never was an essay more aptly named.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t care what all of your quoted sources say,\u201d wrote a fiery businesswoman. \u201cExecutive-level communications candidates who use \u2018that\u2019 do not endear themselves to this veteran headhunter.\u201d One can understand her passion\u2014the raw anger and frustration we all feel when a principle we\u2019ve lived by for years is exposed as an old wives\u2019 tale.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, we\u2019ll leave it to you to decide whether those responsible for the following quotations are English-challenged hacks \u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cI am he that walks unseen.\u201d \u2014J.R.R. Tolkien<\/li>\n<li>\u201cI am he that aches with amorous love.\u201d \u2014Walt Whitman<\/li>\n<li>\u201c\u2026 children that belonged to a man I didn\u2019t even know.\u201d \u2014Mark Twain<\/li>\n<li>\u201cA man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.\u201d \u2014King James I, the Bible, Proverbs 18:24<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Another reader took issue with Kingsley Amis\u2019s preference for <em>the man that I spoke to<\/em> rather than <em>the man whom I spoke to<\/em>\u2014but for a different reason: \u201cI would have written \u2018the man to whom I spoke.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>The gentleman who wrote this believes that prepositions should not end sentences. It\u2019s another of the myths about English that just won\u2019t die, right up there with \u201cDo not split an infinitive\u201d and \u201cDo not begin a sentence with <em>And<\/em>.\u201d Amis set a trap, and this person fell into it. There is no living English scholar who will defend \u201cDo not end a sentence with a preposition,\u201d yet the superstition is still believed by an alarming number of intelligent people.<\/p>\n<p>Here is what the snarky Mr. Amis himself had to say about it: \u201cThis is one of those fancied prohibitions dear to ignorant snobs \u2026 It is natural and harmless in English to use a preposition to end a sentence with.\u201d Amis goes on to quote H.W. Fowler, the dean of English scholars, who wrote, \u201cThe power of saying <em>People worth talking to<\/em> instead of <em>People with whom it is worth while to talk<\/em> is not one to be lightly surrendered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We are all entitled to our preferences\u2014even our prejudices\u2014but declaring them rules everyone else must live by is crossing a line.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pop Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pick the correct choices. Answers are below.<\/p>\n<p>1.<br \/>\nA) This is the man who got away with murder.<br \/>\nB) This is the man which got away with murder.<br \/>\nC) This is the man that got away with murder.<\/p>\n<p>2.<br \/>\nA) She is not someone to whom you want to be rude.<br \/>\nB) She is not someone whom you want to be rude to.<br \/>\nC) She is not someone that you want to be rude to.<br \/>\nD) She is not someone you want to be rude to.<\/p>\n<p>3.<br \/>\nA) I just saw Vada, who looks distracted.<br \/>\nB) I just saw Vada, that looks distracted.<br \/>\nC) A and B are both correct.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. A and C are both correct.<br \/>\n2. All choices are correct.<br \/>\n3. A is correct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There were fervent protests from readers reacting to \u201cOld Superstitions Die Hard.\u201d The article established that the relative pronoun that refers to people as well as to things and has done so for centuries. Never was an essay more aptly named. \u201cI don\u2019t care what all of your quoted sources say,\u201d wrote a fiery businesswoman. [&hellip;]<\/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":[8,9,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pronouns","category-whowhomwhoeverwhomever","category-who-vs-which-vs-that"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641"}],"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=1641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}