Who - whom

1. Who - whom Yikes!

2. Who/Whom in a Question • Just follow normal rules for determining whether pronoun should be nominative or objective. Who/Whom left his backpack here? Who/Whom did the teacher fail? To who/whom were you referring? *It also helps to replace who/whom with he/him or she/her or they/ them.

3. Who/Whom as a Relative Pronoun • In this situation who/whom is the first word of a subordinate clause (that’s a group of words that has a subject and verb but cannot stand as a sentence by itself). • So, you must be able to identify subordinate clauses: • The woman who/whom has lost her keys is at the front desk. • The woman, who/whom I met just now, is at the front desk. • Does anyone know who/whom this woman is? • After you’ve identified the clause, ignore all other words in the sentence and analyze the clause as you would any sentence that has a pronoun issue.

4. Practicing who/whom • The replacement technique works after you’ve separated the clause from the sentence. • At Mendham, the two students who/whom I remember best were great scholars. • If I had remembered who/whom she was, I would never have yelled. • Next year’s captains will be whoever/whomever the players elect. • Everybody who/whom earned an A this MP was given a cookie. • He is one of those players who/whom, I believe, will make a good captain.

5. Incomplete Constructions and Class Assignment • Have you taken this garbage as long as we/us? • I don’t know Chester as well as she/her. (This one can go either way, but two different things are being said – use she and you don’t know Chester as well as she knows Chester. Use her and you don’t know some guy named Chester as well as you know her. In a quiz, use the nominative she – it always works.) Let’s do Exercise 8 pg. 117 together. Do Exercise 7, page 116-117. Ask questions! Come to the front desk and we’ll go over a couple together.