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Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Grammar
Who or whom?
Should I write "... who I assumed to be my relative." or "... whom I assumed to be my relative."?
Top answer
Though technically correct ( I assumed him to be my relative ), whom sounds like a fussy hypercorrection here. My instincts tell me that who is a perfectly good substitute since who would be required in who I assumed was my relative . Let's see what others say.
- Though technically correct ( I assumed him to be my relative ), whom sounds like a fussy hypercorrection here.
- My instincts tell me that who is a perfectly good substitute since who would be required in who I assumed was my relative .
- Let's see what others say.
- CJ
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3 Answers
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Though technically correct (I assumed him to be my relative), whom sounds like a fussy hypercorrection here. My instincts tell me that who is a perfectly good substitute since who would be required in who I assumed was my relative. Let's see what others say.
CJ
CJ
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Thanks.
I always get mixed whenever these who/whom pronouns get anywhere near a linking verb that is preceded by an action verb in a sentence. I can never decided whether the pronoun is in the object case of the action verb (in this case the object of assume, so therefore choose 'whom') or in the predicate nominative case of the 'state of being' verb 'to be' (so therefore choose 'who'
I always get mixed whenever these who/whom pronouns get anywhere near a linking verb that is preceded by an action verb in a sentence. I can never decided whether the pronoun is in the object case of the action verb (in this case the object of assume, so therefore choose 'whom') or in the predicate nominative case of the 'state of being' verb 'to be' (so therefore choose 'who'
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