a brief lesson in pronouns

[deird1]

...and, once again, my colleagues are using complicated words in an attempt to sound professional.

This time it's "whom". Which would be slightly weird even if they were using it correctly. As it is, they're using it in entirely the wrong place, and moving from "slightly weird" to "utterly ridiculous".


Brief revision:

If they're what the sentence is about...
I/thou/he/she/we/you/they/who went to the beach yesterday.

If they're a less important bit of the sentence...
My dog, who was very upset about being given a bath, bit me/thee/him/her/us/you/them/whom.

If they own something...
This is my/thy/his/her/our/your/their/whose cake.

If they own something, but... um... the owner is mentioned after the other bit? Or something? *still gets confused by this* But, anyway...
This rocket launcher is mine/thine/his/hers/ours/yours/theirs/whose.


The useful thing with this is that, if you know one of them, you can do all the others. So, if you know that you could put "me" in the sentence, you should go with "him" instead of "he"...




Why don't they teach this in school anymore?

Comments

[velvetwhip]

*pets you*


Gabrielle

[deird1]

*purrs*

[fenchurch]

And use "whom" in a sentence where you would use "him." At least that was the rule I was taught and it seems to always work.

[watchingtheaeroplanes.blogspot.com]

The same reason they don't teach that "any more" is two words: a combination of anti-prescriptivism, laziness and general ignorance.

The bit you're confused about: "my" and company are possessive adjectives, because they describe nouns; "mine" et cetera are the actual pronouns. Functionally, it's not that they go after the thing owned, but that they stand in for an adjective-noun pair — "this cake is mine" means "this cake is my cake".

And don't worry about being confused by it — I did honours in linguistics and I still had to look it up.

[deird1]

The same reason they don't teach that "any more" is two words: a combination of anti-prescriptivism, laziness and general ignorance.

*coughs*
*coughs again*

Thanks for the explanation!

[cjbanning]

I'm amused at my near-epilectic pedantic fits over the so-simplified-as-to-be-wrong-ness of your definitions of object and subject.

[immer_am_lesen]

...I always thought 'whom' had something to do with to/from/for/at, etc, and 'who' didn't...can you explain this to me in a way I can understand....? :-)

[deird1]

Indeed it does.


It's all to do with the subject and object of the sentence. For instance...

1)"He gave the apple to me."
In this sentence, "he" is the subject, and "me" is the object.

2) "I gave the apple to him."
Here, "I" is the subject, and "him" is the object.

In each case, the subject is the one giving the apple, and the object is the one they're giving the apple TO.

So... going by my helpful listy things...

1) "Who gave the apple to him?"
2) "He gave the apple to whom?"

"Who" is the subject; "whom" is the object.


In the same way...
"It's a present from him."
"It's a present from whom?"

"This chair is for me."
"This chair is for whom?"

"I threw a cushion at him."
"Who threw a cushion at him?"
"At whom did I throw the cushion?"

In each case, the sentence is about the subject ("who") and not so much about the object ("whom").

[immer_am_lesen]

so...whom is used when 'him' would be? :-)

Like when wanting to know whether to use 'me' or 'I'...take out the other person, and if it still makes sense, it's correct? E.g. "He and I went to the movies" "...I went to the movies", whereas "he and me went to the movies", and "me went to the movies", where it doesn't work...unless of course you like talking like a three-year-old. ;-)
Gosh, English is hard work!

[deird1]

so...whom is used when 'him' would be?

Exactly right. :)

[immer_am_lesen]

Yay, I can pretend to be all smart now!
Must remember...him/ whom, him/whom... :-)