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

[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!