Relative pronouns relate to a previously mentioned noun to which we are giving more information and are used to link one clause to another. A clause is a group of related words containing a subject and a verb. Examples of who and whom used as relative pronouns follow:. Are you referring to someone who is doing something who , or are you referring to someone who is having something done to them whom?
Who is used to provide more information about a person or people mentioned previously in a sentence. It is also a subjective pronoun. A subjective pronoun is a pronoun I, me, he, she, etc. Who replaces the subject of the sentence. This same concept can be used when asking questions. Who should be used when asking which person or people did something. Whom is an objective pronoun that is used for formal English.
It is used as the object of a verb or preposition. Whom should replace the object of the sentence. Consider who is having something done to them when finding the object of the sentence. Example sentences: Correct use of whom With whom am I speaking?
The birthday boy was one of them. Not the birthday boy was one of they. Actually, she knew very little about the man with whom she had promised to spend the summer. She has promised to spend the summer with him. Not she has promised to spend the summer with he. Complex sentences: Clauses This sentence is difficult because it contains a clause. Sources If you need more information on how to use who and whom correctly, check these informative websites: Quick and Dirty Tips Grammarly Grammarbook.
Trending articles. Read more How to write the date correctly Tips. Read more Most commonly mispronounced words Tips.
She got the job. Whom can we turn to in a time of crisis? Can we turn to her? The delegates differed as to who they thought might win. Not whom. Here the entire clause is the object of the preposition. Let's look at some of the grammatical places who tends to appear and see whether whom ought to go there instead. Who often functions as an interrogative pronoun, which means that it introduces questions that have nouns as the answer:.
Both of these sentences sound natural with who , but if we want to know whether whom is the grammarian's choice in either of them, we'll have to determine if each who is in the object position. With questions, the easiest way to do this is to reimagine the question as a statement. Reimagining the second question as a statement, "Who should my dog apologize to? Who and whom also frequently function as relative pronouns, which means that they refer to a noun or noun phrase that was mentioned earlier:.
Again, some analysis is required to determine if who here is in the object position and should therefore technically be whom. Relative pronouns introduce subordinate clauses, a subordinate clause being a group of words that has a subject and predicate but that doesn't by itself form a complete sentence.
In the sentences above, the subordinate clauses are "who told my dog about the sandwich" and "who my dog apologized to. In "The person who told my dog about the sandwich was unhelpful," who refers to "the person," which is the subject of both predicates: "told my dog about the sandwich" and "was unhelpful. To make that second one grammatical, we have to do some rearranging, as we did with the questions:.
In "The sandwich's owner, who my dog apologized to, requires a replacement sandwich," the subject of the verb apologized is "my dog"; who is actually the object of the preposition to , which means that whom is the preferred pronoun here:. These can be tricky so we'll analyze a few more examples.
Plus, this sandwich-dog drama goes deeper. According to my cat, who was among those witness to the sandwich consumption, the sandwich appeared to have been abandoned.
0コメント