[title]Family quotes[/title] [description]Welcome to our family quotes section! Here you'll find some of the funniest (and wisest) quotes on the subject of family life![/description]
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Latest post Thu, Aug 7 2008 4:41 AM by jazzmaster. 2 replies.
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jazzmaster  +  551856 Thu, 07 Aug 08 03:24 AM
I need your opinion on the usage of the relative pronoun "whom" in this sentence.

Or should it be "who" instead?  
Is this sentence correct in general? :

Parents are feeling responsible for the bad behaviors of their children whom they wish would grow up for the better later.


(
The pronoun "they" right after "whom" of course refers to "the parents".)


Thanks for your input.
Joined on Fri, Jul 25 2008
Junior Member 80
CalifJim  +  551868 Thu, 07 Aug 08 04:04 AM
You need who.  They wish that their children (subject of clause) would grow up ...

who is the subject form, not whom.

... of their children who (they wish) would grow up ... 

CJ 

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004
California
Veteran Member 22,465
"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche
jazzmaster  +  551876 Thu, 07 Aug 08 04:41 AM

CalifJim
“You need who.  They wish that their children (subject of clause) would grow up ...

who is the subject form, not whom.

... of their children who (they wish) would grow up ... 

CJ 



Thanks CJ.
I thought about that.  But I figured otherwise: "they (the parents) wish that their children would grow up" -> "the parents wish that the children (object of the clause) would grow up".

I pulled a couple of sentences from a dictionary:
 
1. The man whom you just met is a detective.
2. I received a gift from a girl whom I thought did not like me.

So they take "whom" because the relative pronoun must refer to  the object of 1. you met, 2. I thought did not like me, which are "the man" and "a girl" respectively.  Therefore object form "whom" is more suitable than subject form "who".

Man, these are hard to explain with words ...

jm
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