{"id":2599,"date":"2017-11-29T09:17:03","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T15:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=2599"},"modified":"2020-11-25T11:25:28","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T17:25:28","slug":"whom-abuse-is-rampant-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/pronouns\/whom-abuse-is-rampant-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Whom<\/em> Abuse Is Rampant"},"content":{"rendered":"

To continue our series on\u00a0who<\/em>,\u00a0whom<\/em>,\u00a0whoever<\/em>, and whomever<\/em>, today we bring you a Tom Stern classic from September 2013.<\/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\u00a0whom<\/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\u00a0who\u00a0<\/em>is always subjective. Use\u00a0who<\/em>\u00a0wherever you would use the subjective pronouns\u00a0I<\/em>,\u00a0he<\/em>,\u00a0she<\/em>,\u00a0we<\/em>, or\u00a0they<\/em>. It is correct to say\u00a0Who<\/em><\/strong><\/b>\u00a0wants to go?<\/em>\u00a0because we would say\u00a0She<\/em><\/strong><\/b>\u00a0wants to go\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0We<\/em><\/strong><\/b>\u00a0want to go<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The pronoun\u00a0whom\u00a0<\/em>is always an object. Use\u00a0whom<\/em>\u00a0wherever you would use the objective pronouns\u00a0me<\/em>,\u00a0him<\/em>,\u00a0her<\/em>,\u00a0us<\/em>, or\u00a0them<\/em>. It is not correct to say\u00a0Who did you choose?\u00a0<\/em>We would say\u00a0Whom<\/em><\/strong><\/b>\u00a0because\u00a0you choose\u00a0me<\/strong><\/b>\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0him<\/em><\/strong><\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0them<\/em><\/strong><\/b>.<\/em><\/p>\n

A handy memory aid:\u00a0who\u00a0<\/em>=\u00a0he<\/em>,\u00a0whom\u00a0<\/em>=\u00a0him<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here is an all-too-common misuse of\u00a0whom<\/em>:\u00a0He is a man whom I believe can do the job<\/em>. The writer chose\u00a0whom<\/em>, thinking it was the object of\u00a0believe<\/em>. But look what happens when we rearrange the sentence:\u00a0He is a man whom can do the job, I believe<\/em>. Obviously, the proper word is\u00a0who<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Compare that with\u00a0He is a man who I admire<\/em>. Because we would say\u00a0I admire him<\/em>, the sentence should read\u00a0He is a man\u00a0whom<\/strong><\/b>\u00a0I admire<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The key to mastering\u00a0whom<\/em>\u00a0comes down to knowing the difference between a subject and an object.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

    \n
  1. Who\/whom<\/em> do you think will win the prize?<\/li>\n
  2. Who\/whom<\/em> do you think you\u2019ll vote for?<\/li>\n
  3. She is someone who\/whom<\/em> I always counted on.<\/li>\n
  4. She is someone who\/whom<\/em> I always said could be counted on.<\/li>\n
  5. Who\/whom<\/em> are you going to believe?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

      \n
    1. Who<\/em> do you think will win the prize? (they<\/em>\u00a0will)<\/li>\n
    2. Whom<\/em> do you think you\u2019ll vote for? (for\u00a0him<\/em>)<\/li>\n
    3. She is someone whom<\/em> I always counted on. (I counted on\u00a0her<\/em>)<\/li>\n
    4. She is someone who<\/em> I always said could be counted on. (she<\/em>\u00a0could be counted on)<\/li>\n
    5. Whom<\/em> are you going to believe? (you\u2019re going to believe\u00a0me<\/em>)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      To continue our series on\u00a0who,\u00a0whom,\u00a0whoever, and whomever, today we bring you a Tom Stern classic from September 2013. 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 […]<\/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-2599","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\/2599"}],"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=2599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}