Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lion]

How do I defend this sentence (ie explain the grammar) to a student?

"The Austrian school of economics attracted its share of critics, most of whom came from Germany."

The above sentence looks good to me. So why do we use "whom" instead of "who"?

[polonius]

the object whom refers to the critics, and therefore you use the object pronoun rather than the subject pronoun, 'who'

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Omkara]

. . . for the same reason that "most of he" is incorrect. Where "him," "her," etc., will work, so too will "whom."

[faster]

I'd also mention that the entire thing is a way to avoid ending a clause with a preposition, in response to the age-old and commonly-held superimposition of that Latin grammar rule on English.

A misunderstanding, but one that is so common that it's important for students to recognize it.

[Woland]

'Whom' is the historical accusative case form of 'who'. The accusative case is used in English for sentential direct objects and prepositional objects. English has been restricting case for many years. With 'whom', it is now obligatory only when it is the immediate object of a preposition, as it is in the OP's sentence.

When it is not immediately dominated by a preposition, use of whom is optional, for example:

1. To whom did you speak? (immediate domination by 'to')

2. Whom did you speak to? (no longer immediately dominated, but still the object of the preposition)

3. Who did you speak to? (not immediately dominated; thus, the use of who is an option.)

cf. 'Who/Whom did you tell' for a case where the form is a sentential direct object.

[lion]

[robot]

there are certainly times when you'd need to explain such a small point, such as if your students are advanced and have a burning curiosity about this grammatical peculiarity.

otherwise, the answer is simple: just skip it.

one of a teacher's primary functions is to be a filter, selecting from the mountains of English rules the information that is most useful for students to learn.

& there are much more important things to spend time on.

i know that didn't really answer your question, but it's already been summed up rather nicely by woland et al.

ROBT.