Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fumi]

Dear teachers,

Which sentence is correct?

A girl whom I met knew your family very well.
or
A girl who I met knew your family very well.

Some English grammer site by Japanese say the second one is correct, but I think I learned at school when I was a student, and also, there was a website that instruct as the first one.

Could you tell me which is correct?

Fumi

[Lorikeet]

[SimpleEnglishBlogger]

I think omitting the who altogether sounds better. "A girl I met knew your family very well."

However, to be honest, even this doesn't sound completely right to me without context.

Where did you meet this girl? Who is she? How does she know my family? Out of the blue, the sentence would leave me confused.

You might say something like, "A girl I met at work knew your family very well."

But still... I don't love it.

I would probably say it this way. "I met a girl at work who/that knew your family very well."

In fact, I would probably even add more to it. "I met a girl at who who says she knew your family very well."

Of course, this is for natural-sounding speech. If you're sitting a test, as Lorikeet says, you should probably go with "whom".
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