Who? Whom?

[Scorpiоn]

Eveybody's favorite topic!

When exactly do you use who or whom?  My German teacher said if I knew how to use this in English, I would easily pick up Accusative and Daitve cases in Deutsch.  Needless to say, it's been three years...

Not to mention a little education can't hurt.  I think.

[Hagar]

I was always hopeless at the technical side of grammar & failed my English Language exam miserably because of it. I have a natural gift for knowing when something looks right or wrong so I got lazy & didn't bother learning the whys & wherefores. I found the same when I studied French so I suppose I'm just lucky. I copied this explanation from Dictionary.com.
[quote]Usage Note: The traditional rules for choosing between who and whom are relatively simple but not always easy to apply. Who is used where a nominative pronoun such as I or he would be appropriate, that is, for the subject of a verb or for a predicate nominative; whom is used for a direct or indirect object or for the object of a prepostion. Thus, we write the actor who played Hamlet was there, since who is the subject of played; and Whom do you like best? because whom is the object of the verb like and To whom did you give the letter? because whom is the object of the preposition to.

[Jared]

lol, trusty old Hagar, always ready to give us the right answer! :-)

[Scorpiоn]

Drats.

There's an explanation there, I'm sure of it. Maybe I ought'a stick to ruining things.  I do that pretty well...  And on a daily basis too!

[Hagar]

There's an explanation there, I'm sure of it.

Confusing ain't it? Now you know why I failed my English exams. I instinctively know when it looks right but explaining why is a completely different matter. There's no hard & fast rules and even the "experts" disagree.

You might find the original easier to understand as the italics don't show up in my quote. I forgot to post the link in my earlier reply. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=who
It might be even easier if they had bothered to paragraph it properly.

[ATI_7500]

Who = asking for the subject
Who has heard of that accident?

Whom = asking for the object
To whom should the workers complain?

German:

Who = wer (subject)
[i]Wer hat von dem Unfall geh

[Fozzer]

...."to whom it may concern"...!

I love playing with these two words, "Who" and "Whom"...LOL... ...!

It's often obvious after you have typed it/written it, and examined it carefully by repeating the complete phrase to yourself...a few times... ...!

LOL...!

Cheers all.. ...!

Paul.

[FLYING_TRUCKER]

.As I remember and it has been well over 50 years since I sat in an English Grammar Class but:
....was there not something about the end of a word and the commencement of the next that two Vowels should not be used together. (A, E, I, O, U AND SOMETIMES Y)
....EX: above statement "an English Grammar" and not "a English Grammar"
Oh, and yes I would love to see a Spell Checker on this forum .

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

[ATI_7500]

Oh, and yes I would love to see a Spell Checker on this forum

Everyone has a spell checker at home. It's called "dictionary"....

[Fozzer]

.As I remember and it has been well over 50 years since I sat in an English Grammar Class but:
....was there not something about the end of a word and the commencement of the next that two Vowels should not be used together. (A, E, I, O, U AND SOMETIMES Y)
....EX: above statement "an English Grammar" and not "a English Grammar"
Oh, and yes I would love to see a Spell Checker on this forum .

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

Hi Doug...!
Give this a try...!

http://www.quinion.com/mqa/spell.htm

...appears in you IE heading to use for the Forum spell check... ...!

Cheers Mate... ...

Paul....Win '98SE... ...!

[Hagar]

Bjorn's explanation is the best I've seen & probably the most help to Scorp with his German grammar. English is a very strange language & rules are often broken which makes it difficult to learn. According to the explanation I quoted earlier, even Shakespeare  - the recognised master of the language - interchanged who & whom.
American & traditional English grammar & spelling can also vary a great deal. The fact that American English is the recognised computer language confuses things even more.

Oh, and yes I would love to see a Spell Checker on this forum .

Spell-checkers are all very well but no help at all if you use a word in the wrong context. For example: I've lost count of the number of times I see loose used for lose & too for to on this forum. It seems that some people just have to add that extra O for luck when more often than not one is correct. Again, Bjorn is right & a dictionary or thesaurus would probably be more useful. There's a handy link to Dictionary.com at the top of this page.

PS. Everyone has a word processor of some description. If you're not sure of your spelling on the forum, type the word or complete reply in the word processor first & use the spell-checker (& even the grammar check although this is not always a good idea). Then copy/paste the text into your post. Sorted.

[FLYING_TRUCKER]

Hi Paul...thanks...it said it would not work with Windows XP?

I wonder if there is one for Windows XP?

It would be so handy to have one with the YABBC tags.

Oh well...like Bjorn said...a dictionary...I got it, I got it...better English Teachers
I think I shall now go down to the barn and stand in the corner in case of sticky stuff bombing

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug