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PASTEL Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

You know "who" but you don't know why

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00You're angry, hurt, confused and up for revenge--someone has done wrong to you. You know who but you don't know why.12blockquote
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00I don't know how to explain this clearly to learners. I'm not sure I'm totally correct. Thus, I'd be appreciated if you are willing to help with this one. I have seen many posts or arguement here and there about and over the usage of "whom" and "who." You may have your point of view and it's all precious and valued. 02br
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00I think "you know who" is the most correct way to say and the only way out. I take "who" as somewhat a relative pronoun that specifies someone who has done wrong to you. 02br
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00"You know who has done wrong to you and you don't know why." 02br
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00No, there is no room for whom. 02br
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00What do you think? 02br
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00Thanks, 02br
00Pastel 02br
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Top answer

" 02br 02br 00The reason "whom" is correct is that it's the object of the first clause in the sentence. The best way that I can think of to decide whether to use "who" or "whom" is to do it this way... 02br 02br 00Divide the sentence into the 2 different clauses.

— Haoqide

  • " 02br 02br 00The reason "whom" is correct is that it's the object of the first clause in the sentence.
  • The best way that I can think of to decide whether to use "who" or "whom" is to do it this way...
  • 02br 02br 00Divide the sentence into the 2 different clauses.
  • " 02br 02br 00Okay, now that you know what the 2 clauses are, you can decide which word fits in the first clause.
  • I take the sentence and substitute the word "he" for "who" and "him" for "whom" in order to get the right answer.
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12 Answers
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0Hey, Pastel!05002br
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00The correct grammar for that sentence would be, "You know whom, but you don't know why." 02br
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00The reason "whom" is correct is that it's the object of the first clause in the sentence. The best way that I can think of to decide whether to use "who" or "whom" is to do it this way... 02br
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00Divid
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0 Hi! Haoqide, 02br
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00That helps! I can't disagree any more that "You know he" sounds horrible. 02br
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00Really?! Do you think the usage of who is very horrible too? 0-
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0 hehe, yep! It sounds really weird. 02br
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00You're going to run into a lot of sitations at some point where you don't know which one to choose, even if you seperate the sentence into its clauses. Those will be the fun ones! If you want to speak the most correct English, you'll need to use one, but the other one is the one that sounds good. 02br
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0 Pastel - I agree with your original post. I'm sorry, haoqide, but but I just can't imagine saying "you know whom but you don't know why." I think the reason is that "you know who" is a shortened version of "you know who did it." You wouldn't say, "you know him did it," would you? 02br
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00Let's see what the moderator says. 0-
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0 Whom is a funny word. Often officially 'correct' but very rarely actually used by native speakers. I would choose 'who' in this example. 0-
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0 Ouch...now that I look at it...you're right! OOPS!!!!! "You know who" IS a shortened form of "you know who did it". 02br
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00Man, maybe I shouldn't be posting here...ouch. 0-
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0 To add another vote: 02br
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00I know (the person) who (has done wrong to you), but not why. 02br
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00"whom" is incorrect in both formal and informal styles. 02br
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00CJ 0-
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0 In modern English, 'who' works as both a subject and an object. 02br
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00++++++++++++++++ 02br
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00The first story was a nonpartisan analysis of supposed pronoun case errors made by the two candidates in the 1992 US presidential election. George Bush had recently adopted the slogan "Who do you trust?,
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0 Hello Pastel 02br
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00I too would say that 'who' is correct. 02br
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00This is not a case of using 'who' where you might also use 'whom', fortunately. As others have said, 'who' is the subject of its (incomplete) clause. 02br
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00Perhaps the confusion arises because 'who (has done wrong)' is 'what you know'; so the 'who' clau
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0 It's just my opinion perhaps, but I think that anybody using "whom" marks themselves as a fool. The word is just not part of everyday language anymore, and sounds pompous even when employed in a formal context. 0-
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