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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Usage of who/whom

Even though I speak English fairly often I have noticed that I never ever use the pronoun 'whom'. I do not remember learning its usage in school and I don't really remember natives using it, but I may just not pay enough attention when listening to hear the difference. I know that the correct usage is to use it in a question to which the answer is "him" or "her". So you would ask "Whom did you give this to?" But somehow saying that doesn't feel right. And I've learned that the feeling in your guts is often more accurate than what you think you know. So my question is: Is it in everyday language maybe common to use "who" instead of "whom", even though it's gramatically wrong? Or does something like "Who did you give this to" definitely sound wrong to you?

Thanks for your help!
  

Top answer

You have a good sense of English usage. The pronoun whom is the object case of who , just as him and her are object case of he and she . The English language has been losing inflections, conjugations and case endings since its beginnings as a highly inflected Germanic language 1500 years ago.

— AlpheccaStars

  • You have a good sense of English usage.
  • The pronoun whom is the object case of who , just as him and her are object case of he and she .
  • The English language has been losing inflections, conjugations and case endings since its beginnings as a highly inflected Germanic language 1500 years ago.
  • The replacement of whom with who is a modern continuation of this evolution.
  • The changing of strong verbs to weak verbs is another.
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2 Answers
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You have a good sense of English usage.

The pronoun whom is the object case of who, just as him and her are object case of he and she.

The English language has been losing inflections, conjugations and case endings since its beginnings as a highly inflected Germanic language 1500 years ago. The replacement of whom with who
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Anonymous"Who did you give this to"
This is correct because 'who' doesn't occur immediately after the preposition 'to'. This happens all the time with questions. Almost no one uses the old-fashioned form "To whom did you give this?" anymore.

Even if there is no preposition at the end, 'who' at the beginning of a question is fine even if 'who' repre
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