Who / Whom / Whoever / Whomever | The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation

We the People, or…?

GrammarBook.com — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 12:00:03 +0000

For much of the last two months, we have been analyzing why the subject pronouns I, he, she, we, they and the object pronouns me, him, her, us, them are chronically misused and confused. In this final installment, we’ll deal with flawed sentences like Politicians should respect we the people and It’s a happy outcome […]

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Two More Reasons Pronouns Plague Us

GrammarBook.com — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 12:00:56 +0000

For several weeks now, we’ve been counting the ways that pronouns give us nightmares. Today we’ll look at two more culprits: infinitives and verbs that end in -ing (known technically as participles and gerunds). To form an infinitive, precede a verb with the word to. The infinitive of look is to look. Constructions like to […]

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Shape-shifting Troublemakers

GrammarBook.com — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 12:00:02 +0000

No nouns in our language behave like pronouns. The most common subject pronouns (I, he, she, we, they, who, whoever) all become different words (me, him, her, us, them, whom, whomever) when they are objects. Colloquial English has always thumbed its nose at proper English. A seemingly innocent everyday sentence like It’s me is Exhibit […]

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I Subject, Your Honor

GrammarBook.com — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 12:00:47 +0000

In past discussions of who-whom and whoever-whomever, we passed along a handy memory aid: who (and whoever) = they; whom (and whomever) = them.* That’s fine as far as it goes, but it goes nowhere unless we can tell a subject (they) from an object (them). One reason that distinguishing between subjects and objects is […]

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Sweating the Small Stuff

GrammarBook.com — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 12:00:27 +0000

At a football game a few years ago, the University of Notre Dame sold soda in cups that said, “Figthing Irish.” Did no one at this distinguished school have the time or pride to proofread a two-word slogan? Here are a few other items we’ve seen and now wish we hadn’t … Back to Basics […]

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Picking Proper Pronouns: Part I

GrammarBook.com — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 05:00:52 +0000

Many of us have been there before: We’re writing or speaking with confidence in our content. For a secret second, we might even feel, well, educated. Then, unbeknownst to us, improper pronouns leak in and sabotage the impression we were making. Worse yet, we may not know how or why our eloquence tripped. Using the […]

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Whoever vs. Whomever Revisited

GrammarBook.com — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 01:15:18 +0000

In the “English Rules” section of our website, GrammarBook.com, you will find our simple explanation for determining whether to use who or whom. Briefly, this is the trick: who = he (subject pronouns) whom = him (object pronouns) Example: Who/Whom is at the door? He is at the door. Example: For who/whom should I vote? […]

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Year-End Quiz 2017

GrammarBook.com — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 18:01:03 +0000

Review is good for retention. That’s why GrammarBook.com likes to start the new year with a jumbo quiz that spans the last twelve months of topics we’ve covered with you. In 2017 we explored an array of ways to enhance your grammar and writing. We hope what you learned follows you well into 2018 as […]

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Whoever Would Use Whomever: Read On

GrammarBook.com — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 05:31:44 +0000

Two weeks ago we discussed Americans’ odd fondness for whom. It’s a word that few really understand, but it just sounds so darned cosmopolitan. If we’re infatuated with whom, we’re over the moon about whomever. You hear it everywhere. People love saying it—right or wrong. Just recently, a major American newspaper ran a headline that said “… whomever […]

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Whom Abuse Is Rampant

GrammarBook.com — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 15:17:03 +0000

To continue our series on who, whom, whoever, and whomever, today we bring you a Tom Stern classic from September 2013. Consider the humble pronoun. It seems that fewer and fewer Americans know when to say “she” or “he” or “me” instead of “her,” “him,” or “I.” It used to be that little Gloria would run home and […]

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