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The difference between 'who' and 'whom'

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Anonymous  #126838  Sun, 14 Aug 05 04:46 AM
what would i say here?
who/whom may i say is calling?

what do you guys think?

  
paco2004  #126863  Sun, 14 Aug 05 09:22 AM

Should be "Who may I say is calling?"

reason
        I/you/he/we/they --> who,  me/you/him/us/them --> whom
        He is calling -->Who is calling?
        Who is calling? + May I say? --> May I say who is calling? --> Who may I say is calling?

paco

  
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Anonymous  #462821  Thu, 10 Jan 08 10:53 PM

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

OR

WHOM DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?...

WHICH IS CORRECT ? PLEASE HELP

  
MrPedantic  #462830  Thu, 10 Jan 08 11:24 PM

Hello Anon,

Your sentence = "You are who, do you think?"; thus "who" is correct.

All the best,

MrP

  
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Asha101  #462915  Fri, 11 Jan 08 05:47 AM

I don’t like the boy to whom you are talking
I don’t like the boy who you are talking to

They are both correct, right?  Can I say if I use the preposition correctly, I can pretty much avoid "whom" in my writing? 

  
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MrPedantic  #463171  Fri, 11 Jan 08 10:26 PM
 Asha101 wrote:

Can I say if I use the preposition correctly, I can pretty much avoid "whom" in my writing? 

If you are sufficiently determined, you can pretty much avoid "whom". (Do you dislike it, Asha?)

Best wishes,

MrP

  
Anonymous  #504075  Wed, 23 Apr 08 03:30 AM

I'm sorry but I think that this example is incorrect. Since 'Max' is the subject of the clause (with 'given' being the verb and the 'book' the object), it would then translate to Who was given the book? If the original sentence had been, Casi gave Max the book then it would translate to To whom did Casi give the book? Since Casi would become the subject of the clause. A good trick for remembering whether to use who or whom, incidentally, is to replace the word who or whom with he or him and see which one sounds right. Whom, of course, corresponds to him. So, for example: Who arrived first or whom arrived first? Obviously, using this method, he arrived first sounds much better than him arrived first so the correct word to use would be who. On the other hand, Whom do I love or who do I love? I love him sounds better than I love he so the correct word to use would be whom.

  
MrPedantic  #504533  Thu, 24 Apr 08 12:09 AM
Hello Anon,

You're quite right:

1. Whom was given a book?

is incorrect.

(This may not have been clear in the original post, where an asterisk denoted "incorrectness".)

Best wishes,

MrP
  
26TMNTJG2PG  #505277  Fri, 25 Apr 08 11:01 AM

I just joined this Forum a few days ago. I do not know what I going to tell you is still relevant.

I have come across an article "Who" or "Whom" (relative pronouns), careful perusal and digestion of which may be of great help.

  
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