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Thread: who x whom

  1. #1
    Abstract Idea is offline Key Member
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    Default who x whom

    We know whom is used for objects and who is used for nouns.
    However, it seems that, mostly in AmE, one uses always who - regardless be it an object or a noun.
    I would like to confirm such assertion.

    To which extension it is true that whom is not used in AmE anymore?
    I am talking about both spoken and written English.
    And the other English variants? I think all of them still use whom, right?

    P.S.: Feel free to correct any mistakes in this post. Specially the above underlined it is, which I am in doubt should be inverted to is it or not.

  2. #2
    konungursvia's Avatar
    konungursvia is offline Key Member
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    Default Re: who x whom

    Not entirely. In AmE, for uneducated speakers, you are right. For educated speakers, it is a question of formality vs modesty -- to speak correctly, in some social situations, is to don an air of superiority, so we knowingly use the vernacular forms at times. In other situations, to use the vernacular form is inelegant and incorrect -- depending on the milieu.
    Abstract Idea and misiania like this.

  3. #3
    gabber is offline Member
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    Default Re: who x whom

    Quote Originally Posted by ymnisky View Post
    We know whom is used for objects and who is used for nouns.
    However, it seems that, mostly in AmE, one uses always who - regardless be it an object or a noun.
    I would like to confirm such assertion.

    To which extension it is true that whom is not used in AmE anymore?
    I am talking about both spoken and written English.
    And the other English variants? I think all of them still use whom, right?

    P.S.: Feel free to correct any mistakes in this post. Specially the above underlined it is, which I am in doubt should be inverted to is it or not.
    To whom it may concern:
    The pronoun "whom" is indeed still used by probably all native speakers when it occurs after the preposition that it's the object of: "That's the woman at whom I shouted." But a lot of NS's would probably make it "That's the woman (who) I shouted at." //NB that I wrote in the second line "... that it's the object of," not "of which it's the object." The locution "of which" there sounds a bit stiff to this [pretty] old AME speaker. //
    Abstract Idea likes this.

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