4 ms·

2.1 For who? If the author is reading this, proper English would be "For whom?" The intro says he's not a native speaker, so it's a common mistake. Easily fixe

2.1 For who? If the author is reading this, proper English would be "For whom?" The intro says he's not a native speaker, so it's a common mistake. Easily fixed.

dsr_ 10y ago
In my experience, most native English speakers are easily confused about who vs whom, and avoid whom by rephrasing: Who is this book for?
- triangleman 10y ago
  Which would also be incorrect.
  - greenshackle2 10y ago
    You're downvoted but you're not wrong. 'Whom is this book for?' is correct. You can tell because the answer is 'her/him', not 'he/she'. See: http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/whoVwhom.asp http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/whoVwhom.asp
  - malnourish 10y ago
    Incorrect according to whom? If you can understand it, it's not incorrect. You might not like the style, but that doesn't make it wrong.
    - alphapapa 10y ago
      > If you can understand it, it's not incorrect. acn yuo stunderand htis? i no oyu cna so acocrding ot yuo its nto rwong. oaky.
      - malnourish 10y ago
        That's clearly not what I meant. Grammatical prescriptivism is considered incorrect by pretty much any linguist.
    - qu4z-2 10y ago
      Given the rephrasing was done to avoid the question of "should we use 'who' or 'whom' here?", I think it's fair to point out that the new phrasing suffers from the same problem.
- AdmiralAsshat 10y ago
  Which is okay in conversation, but in writing, your pedantic editor or proofreader would probably inform you that it is considered poor style to end the sentence on a preposition. So he's basically trading one error for another. Who/whom is indeed awkward at first to remember, but the phrase "for whom" tends to sound better on the tongue than some of the others due to its inclusion in the title "For Whom the Bell Tolls," a popular novel (or "popular Metallica song", depending on your age).
  - dllthomas 10y ago
    > it is considered poor style to end the sentence on a preposition By some, sure, but not really legitimately. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_stranding#Opinions_for_and_against_preposition_stranding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_stranding#Opinions..., and of course plenty on Language Log including http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2752 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2752

2.1 For who? If the author is reading this, proper English would be "For whom?" The intro says he's not a native speaker, so it's a common mistake. Easily fixed.

dsr_ 10y ago

In my experience, most native English speakers are easily confused about who vs whom, and avoid whom by rephrasing: Who is this book for?

triangleman 10y ago
Which would also be incorrect.
- greenshackle2 10y ago
  You're downvoted but you're not wrong. 'Whom is this book for?' is correct. You can tell because the answer is 'her/him', not 'he/she'. See: http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/whoVwhom.asp http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/whoVwhom.asp
- malnourish 10y ago
  Incorrect according to whom? If you can understand it, it's not incorrect. You might not like the style, but that doesn't make it wrong.
  - alphapapa 10y ago
    > If you can understand it, it's not incorrect. acn yuo stunderand htis? i no oyu cna so acocrding ot yuo its nto rwong. oaky.
    - malnourish 10y ago
      That's clearly not what I meant. Grammatical prescriptivism is considered incorrect by pretty much any linguist.
  - qu4z-2 10y ago
    Given the rephrasing was done to avoid the question of "should we use 'who' or 'whom' here?", I think it's fair to point out that the new phrasing suffers from the same problem.
AdmiralAsshat 10y ago
Which is okay in conversation, but in writing, your pedantic editor or proofreader would probably inform you that it is considered poor style to end the sentence on a preposition. So he's basically trading one error for another. Who/whom is indeed awkward at first to remember, but the phrase "for whom" tends to sound better on the tongue than some of the others due to its inclusion in the title "For Whom the Bell Tolls," a popular novel (or "popular Metallica song", depending on your age).
- dllthomas 10y ago
  > it is considered poor style to end the sentence on a preposition By some, sure, but not really legitimately. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_stranding#Opinions_for_and_against_preposition_stranding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_stranding#Opinions..., and of course plenty on Language Log including http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2752 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2752