Grammar who vs. whom?

Question

Which sentence is correct:

a) Let me know who to contact
b) Let me know whom to contact

Please explain why.

Answer 1

While many people ignore the rules of "who and whom", the old rules still apply in formal speech and published writings.

Whom is the objective or accusative case of who and should be used whenever (at least formally) the interrogative or relative pronoun "who" is the object of a VERB or a preposition.

Sentence b) is correct or closer to being correct by formal standards but still sounds stilted and forced, so a) is actually to be prefered at least in informal usage.

"Who is there?" Subjective or Nominative case of who.
"Whom do you see?" Objective case of "who" Whom is the object of the verb "to see"
"For whom is this book intended?" Object of a preposition "for"...
"This is the woman whom I love!" Objective relative pronoun
"John is a man whom all respect" same here
"Bill is the one to whom I loaned the money." relative pronoun objectg of prep. "to"..

Capisce? But note how formal all the above sound. In everyday speech all that is unnecessary and sounds forced and stilted and even in published writings where you have dialogue, you can break any rules you like!

"Why heck," said Billy Bob, "They ain't no man who can whoop my butt!"
"You'd be wrong, Turd, " spat Frank, "I be jess sich a man to be the one that does it!"

I had an English teacher in college that was so retarded, having gotten her degree obviously from a mail order college or God-knows-what, that she actually corrected grammatical mistakes and mispellings IN DIALOGUE. This supposed "expert" on English should have consulted Mark Twain an expert on dialogue!! Where the written dialogue is an attempt to capture special dialects and forms of colloquial speech like "sich" for "such" or "jess" for "just" it is perfectly OK.

However, colloquialisms, slang and irregular expressions like "irregardless" or "ain't" are inappropriate in formal speech and writings. Try getting a scientific paper published using words like "ain't" and "sich" or a legal document accepted by a court with spellings like "The defendint desahs to pleed non compost mentis"

Did you note the pun?

Instead of "non compos mentis" the correct, I used "non compost mentis" which is what you are fit for after losing your mind!

Quite a few old rules of grammar are regularly ignored even by expert writers like Stephen King.

In the old days one would never end a sentence with a preposition like "This is the book I'm looking for" and it would have to be switched with "This is the book for which I am looking". Once Winston Churchill, the brilliant Prime Minister of England during WWII was asked what he thought about this English grammar rule and said "That is something up with which I will not put!"

It becomes difficult when who is a relative and connects two phrases.

A) Do you know who lives there...
or

B) Do you know whom lives there....

In this case the entire phrase "who lives there" is the object of the verb "know" and sounds better unaltered. B sounds forced, stilted and is unnecessary, and by the standards of most other languages would be in error anyway.

In older English, like in most foreign languages one would insert a preposition.

Do you know him, who lives there?
Do you know the person who lives there?

Let me know him, who I must contact.

They who speak with authority will overcome those who do not.


But due to the lack of knowledge of foreign languages and the evolution of the English language itself from its Germanic roots, when it had noun cases like Latin, most supposed "authorities" on English Grammar simply do not know what they are talking about and their "rules" are often completely bogus. Still, your English teacher and not I, will be giving you the grade; so you would be advised to follow the rules he or she gives you.

Recommendation: Follow whatever your English teacher gives you as a rule, then when you've gained knowledge and skill, dispense with it if it is in error or if following a supposed rule results in a very stilted formal type of speech that would be totally inappropriate in a casual context.

During the time of the 1800s and early 1900s many writers used the German rule of capitalizing all nouns or at least certain nouns when used as an abstraction or personified.

Hence "This woman is my love." but "All the World needs is Love" with both "world" and "love" capitalized because they are not generic but personifications, or an abstraction taken as an individual existential entity. I rather like this old rule and still follow it habitually despite the fact that few people nowadays even know it. B. Russell used it well, so did H.P. Lovecraft. Most of the high school English teachers I've seen are close to being functional illiterates themselves!

"The study of Logic is essential to a good education."

but
"Your logic is faulty."

This is both the German and the proper English rule, but who uses it now, or even knows it?

What is correct here?

Quicker Picker-Uper or
Quicker Picker-Up or
Quicker Pick-Uper

You hear all three of them, and the first is used in a commercial for Bounty. But is it correct?

When I say "I picked up the trash" contrary to what some blockheads think, the word "trash" is not the object of a preposition, but the object of a COMPOUND verb consisting of "pick up". When a verb + preposition used as an adverb can be replaced by a single verb, the noun that follows is NOT the object of a preposition and the verb CANNOT be split.

That's why "This is the one I'm looking for" is preferable to "This is the one for whom I'm looking" because "to look for" can be swapped with "To seek". This is the person I seek. To "look for", like to "look at" should be treated as an inseparable unit. Do not say "This is the person at whom I am looking" but "This is the person I'm looking at" and even better swap out the compound verb for a single verb. Stephen King and Anne Rice both know this rule. You'd be suprised how many English Professors don't.

That's why King and Rice can write something worth reading and these English teachers cannot.

This is the person I'm watching!

Good writers avoid compound verbs if possible!

"watch" instead of "look at"
"seek" instead of "look for"
"lift" instead of "pick up"

On the other hand, a verb form like "I shall have finished the meal by the time you arrive" is not a compound verb at all. It's a compound TENSE!

I'll not even get into the "will" versus "shall" debate, as it's not even important anymore. Nobody even wastes time on this stupid rule anymore.

Just remember.

"I will overcome" expresses intent to overcome

"I shall overcome" expresses more a prediction of the future!

Answer 2

Whom Should I Contact

Answer 3

Who is a subject pronoun; it is used as the subject of a verb. Whom is an object pronoun; it is never used as the subject of a verb.

• Jacqueline, whom you may remember from high school, is now a Jeopardy champion.

If you can’t get who and whom straight, try this trick: rephrase the sentence to get rid of who or whom. If you find you’ve replaced who/whom with he, she, or they, who is correct. If you find you’ve replaced who/whom with him, her, or them, then whom is correct.

For example, suppose you have the question Who/whom is the most famous A-list star eating lunch at Elaine’s? Rephrase it: She is the most famous A-list star eating lunch at Elaine’s. Since you’ve used she, you know who is correct in the original question: Who is the most famous A-list star at Elaine’s?

Another example: Vaughn wondered who/whom he would kiss next. Rephrase: Vaughn would kiss her next. Since the rephrased sentence uses her, you know whom is correct: Vaughn wondered whom he would kiss next.

Answer 4

WHOM.

Tom Z is right. Here's an easy way to figure out which you should use:

Try to memorize "he/she/who" (all are subject pronouns) and "him/her/whom" (all are object pronouns).

An expected response would be "please contact him (or her)," so you need to use "whom." It would not sound right to say "please contact she" so it's not correct to say "who."

An expected response to "Let me know who can give me more information" would be "He can give you more information." (not "him can").

Answer 5

a) Let me know who to contact

Answer 6

I dunno. Maybe two vowels can't be next to eachother. Like saying, "it's an elephant" instead of "it's a elephant".