4 ms·
I can't decide if the "Whom" in the title is a troll or not. At least the article gets it right.
by steverb 16y ago
I can't decide if the "Whom" in the title is a troll or not. At least the article gets it right.
- tspiteri 16y agoHow does the article get it right? If the answer can be "him", the question should be "whom", and if the answer can be "he", the question should be "who". Having said that, "Whom am I speaking with?" does sound pretty weird, "With whom am I speaking?" sounds much better.
- steverb 16y agoWho is a subjective pronoun. Whom is an objective pronoun. First hit off the Google: http://web.ku.edu/~edit/whom.html http://web.ku.edu/~edit/whom.html Doesn't matter really, just made my brain twitch when I read it.
- ajross 16y agoMe too, but that's because the implied preposition makes the word order look funny. The subject of the title sentence is "I".
- blahedo 16y agoThat was the traditional rule, but in modern English, "whom" is a particularly marked usage anywhere except as the immediate object of a pronoun. "With whom am I speaking?" sounds formal but fine; "Who am I speaking with?" (or "...to?") is also fine. The form given in the title here is at best overly formal and stilted. What makes it weird is that it mixes the formal not-after-a-preposition "whom" with a sentence-ending "with", mixing register in a very confusing way. It's like wearing a bow tie and tails with loud bermuda shorts: both are perfectly acceptable public attire and you might see either on a busy urban street of an evening, but it's jarring to see them together.
- jmulho 16y agoRight. "With whom am I speaking"? sounds stuffy at the beach. "Who am I speaking with?" sounds lazy at the opera. "Whom am I speaking with?" just sounds confused. A similar example that annoys me is the American pronunciation of the wine Pinot Noir ("PEE-no NWAR"). I say make up your mind. It is either "PEE-no NWA" as in French, or "PEE-not NWAR". The mixed pronunciation just sounds confused. Plus, it goes great with peanuts.
- dctoedt 16y ago> "PEE-no NWA" as in French Unless the French language has changed since I lived there, Noir would be pronounced NWARhh, with a gutteral R.
- jmulho 16y agoOk, there is some kind of faint R in the French, but it definitely doesn't ryhme with "see no star". English: http://inogolo.com/pronunciation/Pinot%20Noir http://inogolo.com/pronunciation/Pinot%20Noir French: http://www.forvo.com/word/pinot_noir/#fr http://www.forvo.com/word/pinot_noir/#fr
- Vivtek 16y agoThe reason it "sounds weird" is that it's attempting to straddle two dialects. The use of "whom" is a signal for classical (Latinate) grammar, which would demand the Latinate prepositional word order, while the use of separable-prefix Germanic word order with "with" at the end is a signal to use "who" because dangling prepositions are associated with the less-Latinate trend towards discarding accusative "whom". These modes normally don't get mixed, hence the weird sound of the title of this post.
- hung 16y agoI can't decide if this comment is a troll or not. "Whom" is grammatically correct.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]