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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Better than whom?

Hello all,

I had an argument with about the proper use of whom today, and am trying to clear it up.

Any help would be appreciated.

So, is it correct to say "she is better looking than whom," or "she is better looking than who?"

Thanks, Kareem
  

Top answer

Anonymous she is better looking than whom," or "she is better looking than who? "Whom" is correct, but some "native speakers" never use "whom" these days. I'm presuming that your example is a question framed in statement order.

— Avangi

  • Anonymous she is better looking than whom," or "she is better looking than who?
  • "Whom" is correct, but some "native speakers" never use "whom" these days.
  • I'm presuming that your example is a question framed in statement order.
  • ( So your problem is what?
  • ) She's better looking that that other girl.
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8 Answers
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Anonymousshe is better looking than whom," or "she is better looking than who?
"Whom" is correct, but some "native speakers" never use "whom" these days.

I'm presuming that your example is a question framed in statement order. (So your problem is what?)

She's better looking that that other girl. (reply) She's better look
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than, the preposition, would take the objective case pronoun whom, but the question is a bit awkwardly structured nevertheless. In most conversational contexts the question word would appear at the beginning. The 'fronting' of whom sanctions a change to who, so you can have

Whom is she better looking than?

OR

Who is she better looking than?
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It is an awkward structure. I would word the question completely differently, with "who" as the interrogative subject pronoun:

Who is less attractive than she is? (Different wording, but a more natural expression.)

Who is she better looking than? (To me, this is still rather awkward.)

In grammar, both subject or object case can be used after than:

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AlpheccaStarsWho is she better looking than? (To me, this is still rather awkward.)
Stranding "than" just isn't your thing? It isa bit unpleasant, isn't it?
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It's one of the strongest cases where one could successfully argue against ending a sentence with a preposition!
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The answer is "better looking than who," as the correct grammar would be "better looking than he," or "better looking than he is," but not "better looking than him."

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The rule of thumb for the who/whom distinction is to straighten out the word order and substitute "he" or "him". That rule fails in this instance because of the ongoing dispute over whether "than" is a prepostion in this case. The OED does not even mention a prepositional "than". The AHD has a long usage note that favors flexibility in this regard. In my dialect, and I daresay American English

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"Whom" is less common in conversation than it used to be, but the rule still works.

Think of two sentences:

"This is the man. I saw him last night."

We can join these with a relative clause:

"That is the man whom I saw last night."

"whom" replaces "him", the object of the second sentence. "Whom" is the object of the relative clause.

Now take:

"This is

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