Relative pronouns

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Satyre

#154822 Thu, 03 Nov 05 05:01 PM

Which is the correct way to say the following sentence?

...depending on WHO do you ask....

OR

...depending on WHOM do you ask...

Would you care to explain, why ?

Satyre

Joined on Tue, Nov 1 2005

New Member (04)

Whom

pieanne

#154823 Thu, 03 Nov 05 05:13 PM

Hello, Satyre,

First, there's no "do" in a reported question, you use the normal word order.

Then I'd say the grammatically correct form is " depending on whom you ask", but I think you'll hear the latter more and more. Someone may correct me, though...

Sorry, I had forgotten the second part of your question. Well "who" is a subject form, and "whom" the complement form.

pieanne

Joined on Thu, Jan 20 2005

South of France ...But I'm Belgian!

Veteran Member (7,512)

I'm glad to help, but I'm not a native! And please excuse my typos...

Whom, Word Order

Satyre

#154830 Thu, 03 Nov 05 05:59 PM

Thank you.

I always hear people on TV, including major network TV anchors, using WHO instead of WHOM.. I use "Whom", but they are confusing me.

As a conjunction, "WHO" is a subjective pronoun and "WHOM" is an objective pronoun. That is not what I asked. In some cases identifying the subject and the object is a problem for me hence the question.

Satyre

Nouns, Pronouns, Whom

pieanne

#154848 Thu, 03 Nov 05 07:28 PM

"Who" is not a conjunction. It's a relative/interrogative pronoun (it always replaces a person) Identifying the subject answers the question "WHO does (what)?"

pieanne

Nouns, Pronouns