Whom

Hi guys,

Please check. "From whom did you take it", "Whom does it belong to", "Whom do you want to speak".

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Tufguy:

May I congratulate you on your excellent use of "whom"?

I think that your third example needs "speak to" or "speak with."

*****

It helps me to rearrange questions in order to better analyze them:

You did take it from ____?

It does belong to ____?

You do want to speak with / to ____?

As you can see, the word in the blank is the object of the preposition. Therefore, as you know, you need the objective form "whom."



James

I am not a teacher.

"From whom did you take it?" This is correct but you would usually hear, "Who did you take it from?"

"Whom does it belong to?" This is correct but very stiff and unnatural. You would usually hear, "Who does it belong to?"

"Whom do you want to speak?" This is wrong. "To whom do you want to speak?" or, "Who do you want to speak to?"

They all require question marks.

"To whom does it belong". Is it correct?

tufguy said:

"To whom does it belong". Is it correct?

Click to expand...

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

In my OPINION:

1. As Roman reminded us, perhaps the most natural question would be: "Who does it belong to?"

2. "Whom does it belong to?" would be grammatically correct, but notice how much energy is needed to pronounce "whom."

2. "To whom does it belong?" might actually be the most correct of all, but it would be much too formal. I do not think that most people would speak that way.

Compare:

Who do you live with?
Whom do you live with?
With whom do you live?

P.S. This is only my OPINION: If you are doing any formal writing (for example, university reports), I think that you should use "whom" when it is grammatically needed. In ordinary conversation, it is better to incorrectly use "who" -- because you do not want your friends to think that you are strange! (I always use "whom" in speech and writing because I am an old man, so I do not care if people think that I am strange.)


James