Whoever vs. Whomever

1 2 3 4 5 6

Share on Facebook

Anonymous

#282296 Tue, 17 Oct 06 06:40 PM

what about this

The title of salutatorian goes to whomever/whoever has the second highest academic average.

Anonymous

#282304 Tue, 17 Oct 06 06:54 PM

Whom/Who did you say this package was for?

Anonymous

Whom

MrPedantic

#282420 Wed, 18 Oct 06 12:27 AM

Anonymous wrote:

what about this

The title of salutatorian goes to whomever/whoever has the second highest academic average.

Would you like to try first, Anon?

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004

Veteran Member (11,852)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

Anonymous

#282640 Wed, 18 Oct 06 01:29 PM

in fact now i realized that I'm ok with that one

The title of salutatorian goes to whoever has the second highest academic average.

(correct me if i'm wrong)

But what about the second one: Whom/Who did you say this package was for?

i'm soving some SAT prep. questions and the sentece is given like this:

Whom did you say this package was for?

and you should spot the mistake. i think that it's ok like this, but the answer is that whom is wrong.

Anonymous

Whom

J Lewis

#282663 Wed, 18 Oct 06 02:22 PM

I've been wanting to start a thread on this "whomever" for a long time; I've seen "whomever" used a lot of times when it should have been "whoever", so I'm glad to see the question settled.
The British are less correct than the Americans on this point and rarely use "whom" and "whomever" in speech.

J Lewis

Joined on Tue, Sep 5 2006

Italy

Regular Member (518)

Whom

MrPedantic

#282835 Thu, 19 Oct 06 12:32 AM

Anonymous wrote:

in fact now i realized that I'm ok with that one

The title of salutatorian goes to whoever has the second highest academic average.

(correct me if i'm wrong)

Spot on.

But what about the second one: Whom/Who did you say this package was for?

i'm soving some SAT prep. questions and the sentece is given like this:

Whom did you say this package was for?

and you should spot the mistake. i think that it's ok like this, but the answer is that whom is wrong.

Very few people would say "Whom...for?". "Who...for?" is certainly the normal usage. But I would not say that "whom" was "wrong"; simply unusual.

Did the question specify "ordinary usage"?

MrP

MrPedantic

Whom

Diamondrg

#282919 Thu, 19 Oct 06 07:49 AM

So using 'whom' in speech marks one as non-native? Can you say it is best to reserve it for 'writing'?

Diamondrg

Joined on Fri, Dec 2 2005

Regular Member (996)

Whom

J Lewis

#282925 Thu, 19 Oct 06 08:09 AM

Certainly in BrE it's mainly reserved for writing. The use of "whom" sounds quite formal, but then formal people exist! It's up to you when and whether you relax the rules, but it's best to make this decision when you're living in daily contact with native speakers.

J Lewis

Whom

Anonymous

#283114 Thu, 19 Oct 06 05:11 PM

MrPedantic wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

in fact now i realized that I'm ok with that one

The title of salutatorian goes to whoever has the second highest academic average.

(correct me if i'm wrong)

Spot on.

But what about the second one: Whom/Who did you say this package was for?

i'm soving some SAT prep. questions and the sentece is given like this:

Whom did you say this package was for?

and you should spot the mistake. i think that it's ok like this, but the answer is that whom is wrong.

Very few people would say "Whom...for?". "Who...for?" is certainly the normal usage. But I would not say that "whom" was "wrong"; simply unusual.

Did the question specify "ordinary usage"?

MrP

no , it didn't. in fact i think it's better to be more formal.

ok, thanks anyway Smile [:)]

Anonymous

Whom

1 2 3 4 5 6