Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

Does anyone else agree with FMPJ (that "whom" is correct in the original sentence)?

[grant gerstners]

I agree with FMPJ (that "whom" is correct in the original sentence).

As a kid I was taught the same technique he demonstrated, of converting to the question form. It always works.

[El Macho]

Edit: never mind.

[Chaucer]

"whom" is right in the original sentence.

[b-class rambler]

[soyoungmikey]

Who vs Whom

Many English speakers do not know the difference between who and whom. In some places, it hardly matters, because using who when you should use whom is so common that it's not even considered much of a mistake. But for those who want to know the difference between who and whom, here is an explanation.


Who

Who is an interrogative pronoun and is used in place of the subject of a question.

Who is going?

Who are you?

Is this who told you?

Who can also be used in statements, in place of the subject of a clause.

This is who warned me.

Jack is the one who wants to go.

Anyone who knows the truth should tell us.


Whom

Whom is also an interrogative pronoun, but it is used in place of the object of a question.

Whom is this story about?

With whom are you going?

Whom did they tell?

And whom can be used in statements, in place of the object of a clause.

This is the man whom I told you about.

John is the man whom you met at dinner last week.

Whom is always the correct choice after a preposition.

The students, one of whom is graduating this year, failed the test.

Lisa is the girl with whom I'm driving to Maine.


The Bottom Line

The difference between who and whom is exactly the same as the difference between I and me, he and him, she and her, etc. Who, like I, he, and she, is a subject - it is the person performing the action of the verb. Whom, like me, him, and her, is an object - it is the person to/about/for whom the action is being done. Whom is also the correct choice after a preposition: with whom, one of whom, not "with who, one of who."

Sometimes it helps to rewrite the sentence and/or replace who/whom with another pronoun so that you can see the relationships more clearly.

This is who warned me > He warned me (not "him" warned me)

Jack is the one who wants to go > He wants to go (not "him" wants to go)

This is the man whom I told you about > I told you about him (not about "he")

Lisa is the girl with whom I'm driving to Maine > I'm driving to Maine with her (not with "she")

[raewon]

Thanks for all the replies.

soyoungmikey

[Thiuda]

[The Cosmic Hum]

Hello Raewon,

Sorry to come late to this one�I thought it was well covered already.

FMPJ has given you some good feedback on this.
Whom is definitely the correct usage�in the prescriptive sense.
As others have mentioned there is more than one way to answer this question.

However, Thiuda is giving some good advice in understanding this from the relative pronoun position, and in my opinion if you follow that line of reasoning this thread becomes much clearer.
This sentence is a complex sentence with a restrictive relative clause.

I worked hard and become the man (whom I wanted to be.) Whom is the object of the dependent clause.
I worked hard and became (that kind of man). I wanted to be (that kind of man).

Relative clauses have about 40 different forms�but in this case we just need to be concerned with 2.
What we need to decide is whether or not the relative pronoun is subject or object related.
Once that is done�the question of whom or who becomes elementary.
If it is subject related � who
If it is object related � whom�prescriptively anyway.

If we take SoyoungMikey�s examples we can see this more clearly.

This is who warned me > He warned me (not "him" warned me)

Jack is the one who wants to go > He wants to go (not "him" wants to go)

This is the man whom I told you about > I told you about him (not about "he")

Lisa is the girl with whom I'm driving to Maine > I'm driving to Maine with her (not with "she")

1) This is who warned me�who relates to this�which is the subject�therefore�who.

In complex sentences it is sometimes easier to break it down to see things more clearly.
2) Jack is the one who want to go. (who relates to Jack..Jack is the subject�who is the relative subject in the dependant clause.)
Jack is the one. Jack wants to go.

3) This is the man (whom I told you about). (whom is object of the dependant clause�the man.)
This is the man. I told you about the man.

The same goes for the final example.
4) Lisa is the girl (with whom I�m driving to Maine.) with whom is the object of the dependant clause.
Lisa is the girl. I am driving to Maine with Lisa.

As I mentioned�there are about 40 different structures for relative clauses�but for this case all you need to decide/discover is whether or not the relative pronoun is acting as a subject or object.
Sometimes to see it more clearly...break down the clauses.
Sorry this post is so long�I didn�t have time to make it shorter.

[b-class rambler]

[raewon]

Thiuda - Thank you for your reply and for that link. I will definitely check it out.

The Cosmic Hum - Thanks for taking the time to break that down for me.
I guess I just got confused somewhere within this thread .... and couldn't find my way out.

Thanks everyone!

[Thiuda]

[b-class rambler]

[Thiuda]

[b-class rambler]

There's a fair bit of other stuff I'd disagree with the above poster on, but it's getting way beyond what the OP asked, I doubt that many people are that interested and I don't wish to see this thread veer away from the pleasant tone it's thus far had, which I suspect it might do.

I don't think it's worth the effort of any further input and trust that the OP is happy with the varying contributions he received.