ESL Vocabulary and Idioms

Re: Relative pronouns

pieanne — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 19:28:39 GMT

"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)?"

Re: Relative pronouns

Satyre — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 17:59:29 GMT

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.

Re: Relative pronouns

pieanne — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 17:13:54 GMT

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.

Relative pronouns

Satyre — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 17:01:52 GMT

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 ?