Re: who versus whom

Your ear is OK on the last sentence, "him" in this construct is the
accusative, and the accusative form of who is who.  Whom is the dative, and
whose the genitive. IIR my "English as a Foreign Language" grammar lessons
correctly.

My last words on the subject, I promise.

I have found a little trick that works most of the time, but not
always. Substitute "he" for "who" and "him" for "whom" and see if
which sounds right.

Using Carl's examples:

"To he am I speaking" sounds clearly wrong. "To him am I speaking?"
still  sounds weird, but may be a little better.

"Knock knock, he is there." Sounds okay. "Knock, knock, him is there."
Obviously wrong.

Now which of these sounds better?

"That may be he,"  Or  "That may be him."

Hmmmm. Not much help, but to my ear, the second sounds a little
better.

Elliot Richmond
Itinerant astronomy teacher

Maybe, but I stick by what I said. I repeat my argument that "whom" is
the object of the verb "to be." The subject is the relative pronoun
"that."  

Nevertheless, "whom" is rapidly disappearing from English. Even such
advocates of proper English usage as the OED now suggest that the "who
versus whom" distinction no longer serves any useful purpose.

The only place in English where the objective pronoun is still used is
as the object of a preposition, as in your second example.

Elliot Richmond
Itinerant astronomy teacher

Nope.  You may know your astronomy, but you don't know your grammar.

"Knock knock, who is there?"  "To whom am I speaking?"

Nope. "whom" is the object of the verb "to be" so it is appropriate.

Elliot Richmond
Itinerant astronomy teacher

Shouldn't that be "Who may that be?"

Whom may that be?

How about the other 'Twisted sister'?

--

Liberals.  You can't talk to them and bullets are just so damned expensive!

Chuck Norris

It took about a week.........

You may not have been around here for long but you've sure got Janet's
number.

*Here* we call them trailer parks or mobile home parks. Don't assume things
have the same names everywhere.  They're "tags" here and "license plates" in
NY. There are other examples.

I don't live in the lower Rio Grande Valley where most of the RV parks have
a
combination of mobile homes, park models and RVs.  Here Trailer Parks are
primarily mobile homes.

And I am constantly amazed by your nasty small minded mean spiritedness,
laughable haughtiness and ignorant assumptions that everyone lives where you
do and things are the same everywhere.

 It will then be a trailer park, not a campground.

The term is "mobile home park" and there are some very lovely ones where
the residents take pride in their homes.

Also, here in the Lower Rio Grande Valley most of the RV parks have a
combination of mobile homes, park models and RVs.

I am constantly amazed by your limited knowledge.

On Jul 3, 12:10 pm, "Tom J" <tomne...@earthlink.net> wrote:

FWIW, in Ontario, Canada, we just rented a seasonal camping site at
Lyndhurst for our trailer... management announced recently they intend
to convert all existing seasonal sites to year-round fully serviced
sites within 10 years. No more seasonal camping. They already have
quite a few year-round residents... big house-type trailers with
insulated plumbing hook-ups and huge propane tanks.

We'll have to decide what to do if we're still there when the mandated
change occurs - either buy a house trailer and sell the Zeppelin... or
move.

David "The Hamster" Malone

FWIW, in Ontario, Canada, we just rented a seasonal camping site at
Lyndhurst for our trailer... management announced recently they intend
to convert all existing seasonal sites to year-round fully serviced
sites within 10 years. No more seasonal camping. They already have
quite a few year-round residents... big house-type trailers with
insulated plumbing hook-ups and huge propane tanks.

We'll have to decide what to do if we're still there when the mandated
change occurs - either buy a house trailer and sell the Zeppelin... or
move.

David "The Hamster" Malone

************************************************
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - The recession is helping create a new
lifestyle in Alabama: Permanent camping.

Campgrounds across Alabama are filling with permanent residents
seeking less-stressful, less-expensive lifestyle. Campground operators
say it's an enticing option for both retired people and younger adults
who have fallen on hard times.

Alabama's state parks didn't allow full-time residents in its
campgrounds for decades. But it now allows full-time residents at Lake
Guntersville State Park and Wind Creek State Park near Alexander City.

State Parks Director Mark Easterwood said pressure from campers
created the change.
*************************************************

Is the happening everywhere??
Tom J