A Little Public Service Announcement
Timothy Sandefur on Sep 28th 2005
It’s too often that I see people use the word “whom,” or better yet, “whomever,” when they are trying to sound fancy and whatnot, with apparently no idea of when the word is properly used. Here is an explanation of when the word is appropriate. It points out a trick that I often use: “when in doubt, substitute him and see if that sounds right. If him is OK, then whom is OK. For example: ‘You talked to whom? You talked to him.’ It would be incorrect to say ‘You talked to he,’ and few native English speakers would make that mistake.” Some examples:
Whoever is nominated to the Supreme Court….
Whom do you have in mind?
Anyone who understands the commerce clause
Who understands the commerce clause?
Anyone to whom I’ve explained it.
Who explained it to you?
Who wants to know?
Well, I was going to tell someone else.
Whom?
Whomever I want to.
Everybody got that? Good.
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