h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hmm, I'm afraid it's more complicated, because I think you ask :
Who have you been talking to

or

To whom have you been talking - and I really can't explain this, not in English, anyway

Hey, it's just what I think, it's not necessarily right, whereas you are right, it's a matter of cases
So where is our teacher with the enlightenment

woah woah okay sweetpeas..here I am...let's see...

The rules for using who or whom are very simple, but its hard to apply them in real life.

WHO is used when the pronoun I or HE would be used directly with a verb, therefore
"The person who ate this doughnut is in trouble", because who is the subject of ate.

WHOM is used for a direct or indirect object or as the subject of a preposition (at, by, with, from, to).
"To whom did you give the doughnut?"
Whom is the subject of the preposition to.


It gets difficult when the sentence is long with mixed bits in it.
It could be hard to see that
"Who do you think is ugly?" works because who is the subject of is...rather than whom being the subject of think.

Generally however "who" is used in any situation. This is because "whom" has become generally stuffy and old-fashioned. Plus people may use it when trying to be posh and actually show that they don't know what they're talking about, example "Whom shall I say is calling?" is well-known as a butler's phrase, however the usage of "whom" is wrong.

I don't know if that made any sense. Sorry I tried to make it as simple as possible. Even English people get it wrong all the time and now we tend to just say who, but it's a point worth thinking about I suspect.

I met the man (_____) the publishers had tried to get the prime minster to disavow.

(____) did Max say he gave the ruler to?


(___) do you believe is dead?

1. ?
2.whom
3.who

and my son has been taught not to use whom anymore because it's oldfashioned

The first one was whom.

I agree that whom is old fashioned and not generally used anymore, however it's worth learning because if you had to write a formal letter for business, for example, it would give you a head start by using the most correct grammar possible. It gives a good impression, plus a lot of English people use it incorrectly and therefore you will have an upper hand.

Plus it's difficult to think what to teach and test you two seeing as you have huge amounts of knowledge in some things and none in other areas, and you both vary a lot.

I couldn't answer the first sentence because I had no idea what it meant, and was too lazy to look it up
I'm sure it must be difficult to teach English on here, but I think you're doing a good job

It was a messy meaningless sentence

If you get down to it it basically means...

I met the man whom the publishing company tried to get the prime minster to say that he was not associated in any way with.

disavow means to say you have no knowledge, responsibility or association with something.

For example,

He disavowed claims that he was secretly a camel.

I still haven't got it, who was asked to talk ?

Sorry what? In the sentence?

Okay...the publishing company asked the prime minister to say that he had no connection with this man. I then spoke to that man....

so the main thing is that I spoke to the man. The fact that a publishing company asked the prime minister to say something about him, is additional information.

it's an odd sentence, very confusing why don't you write ....you know what ? Forget about it, it will never nbe clearer

Because that's the way some things are written, plus it was a good example of what I was trying to show with the subject and preposition far apart

I'll be doing some idioms and the such in a bit, which you appear to be rather good at.

I'm not good at them, my dictionary is
Off to bed now, goodnight

Sorry, still didn't get whether my sentence with "whom" was wrong or correct.

katkodl

*flings hands in air* let's say yes

Does that mean that I've altered the English language?

Cat, where did 'secretly a camel' come from? Do you know someone who is, in fact, secretly a camel?

"I've got something to tell you, Kat"
"Yes?"
"I'm secretly a camel"

* Da-da-DOOWWWWW plays in the background*




I'll shut up now, shall I?

Don't stop, I think it's funny

I've just seen that you camel will go and support Dani at the funeral of her dad : will you please give her a real hug from me ?

Course! yeah, I've known Dani and her dad since she was about 4 and I was about 5...