Please help settle a disagreement.

Share on Facebook

Anonymous

#134162 Mon, 05 Sep 05 04:52 PM

It is my understanding that the following sentence is acceptable wirttien either way.

Have you ever wanted to know a seminarian to which you could send notes and cookies or other small gifts?

Have you ever wanted to know a seminarian to whom you could send notes and cookies or other small gifts?

What is the opinion here? Would appreciate any suggestions for this has cause d quite a stir where I work. Thanks!

Anonymous

Cookies, Whom

pieanne

#134185 Mon, 05 Sep 05 06:13 PM

A person is never referred to as "which".

So, it's either:

Have you ever wanted to know a seminarian to whom you could send notes and cookies or other small gifts?

Have you ever wanted to know a seminarian you could send notes and cookies or other small gifts to?

(here, you replace "whom" by "that", which can be omitted if it's not the subject, and you put the preposition at the end of the relative clause, because the clause cannot begin with a preposition).

PS: Tongue Tied [:S] What's the context?

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...

Clauses, Cookies, Prepositions, Whom

MrPedantic

#134252 Mon, 05 Sep 05 11:45 PM

I agree with Pieanne. Both Pieannes, in fact.

(Very powerful stuff, that Whiteout.)

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004

Veteran Member (11,931)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

RSS Feed: ESL General English Grammar Questions