Can I say these?

[Joe]

Yes, you can say too direct to be. (Did you notice my mistake in punctuation?)

Punctuation mistake? You seemed to miss one of the brackets. Did you mean it, RonBee?

[bmo]

I agree with Mike, except I would probably say I have never told them who I admired.

:wink:

Are both who and whom acceptable?

BMO

[Tdol]

Yes,they are. 'Whom' is less used nowadays. I would say that the onlytime it isn't optional is directly after a preposition.

[MikeNewYork]

I agree with Mike, except I would probably say I have never told them who I admired.

:wink:

Are both who and whom acceptable?

BMO

I'm going to have disagree with my colleague here. One can get away with "who" in that construction in all but the most serious types of speech and in informal writing. But "whom" is the only grammatically correct choice there. It won't matter most of the time, but it will matter sometimes.

[bmo]

I remember the correct grammar long, long time ago, like 40 some years ago when I was in high school, now I am all confused. See how hard it is to being an ESL learner? May I say as a learner, the safest way is to use the correect grammar, and in this case, whom is the correct one, no one will dispute that. (I was confused because I thought "whom" was wrong.)

Thanks to you all.

BMO

[MikeNewYork]

I remember the correct grammar long, long time ago, like 40 some years ago when I was in high school, now I am all confused. See how hard it is to being an ESL learner? May I say as a learner, the safest way is to use the correect grammar, and in this case, whom is the correct one, no one will dispute that. (I was confused because I thought "whom" was wrong.)

Thanks to you all.

BMO

That is one of the tough "whom" constructions. It is easier when it follows a verb or preposition. Most of the problems arise when it comes before a verb or preposition. :wink: