Monday, September 3, 2007

Who vs. Whom

Oh, dear, I get so confused. Even my Grandma can't teach me grammar.  In a recent entry I wrote

Later in the morning it will ask for BOB, whoever he is.

Shouldn't that be whomever? I think that pronoun is the object of the clause whoever he is.  Whomever would be the objective case. AND wait another minute: that is an independent clause.  How come it is hanging onto BOB with a comma.  That should be a period, or a least a semi-colon

Fifty-five years ago I was teaching high school English, and would have known.  Now I got no grammar at all.


Tags: , ,Help me Graham Kerr

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not good with english myself Chuck. Helen

Anonymous said...

Funny but you know I personally think the whom is going by the wayside.... actually I don't know anyone who uses it. It always seems like someone is acting better than the rest or showing off when they talk like that.  :>)
Sandra

Anonymous said...

WHATEVER!  :-)

Anonymous said...

Don't ask me I barely passed English, but I sure loved all of my English teachers, they seemed to be the only real people in the teaching world LOL. my worse subject was Math, and that is how I earned my living for the rest of my life, not higher Math, just auditing books, keeping books, and sales clerk. gg/Jackie

Anonymous said...

it sounded ok to me but then i am not the english police either lol

Deb

Anonymous said...

lol....Now Chuck.....this made me laugh!
love ya,
carlene

Anonymous said...

    I'm a writer. My grammar sucks and I can't spell either. Most writers can't. Thank God usage changes with time. Maybe someday we'll outgrow that rule.
Jude
http://journals.aol.com/jmorancoyle/MyWay

Anonymous said...

Once upon a time I could tell you which is which.  Not anymore.

I think it happens to most of us.