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	<title>Writing for Business - A Whatis.com Blog &#187; whom</title>
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	<description>Is your grammar as good as your code?</description>
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		<title>Who vs. whom &#8212; for when you can&#8217;t avoid it</title>
		<link>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/writing-for-business/who-vs-whom-for-when-you-cant-avoid-it/</link>
		<comments>http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/writing-for-business/who-vs-whom-for-when-you-cant-avoid-it/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Jun 2012 11:59:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ivy Wigmore</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[formal writing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[incorrection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pronouns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[whom]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/writing-for-business/?p=1742</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Which is correct? ____ can you trust? Social engineering tactics are so sneaky and phishing attempts are so sophisticated that you&#8217;re afraid to click a link in an email from your boss or your bank. a. Who b. Whom Answer: b. Explanation: Whom is the correct choice for the true grammar stickler. As the object [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Which is correct?</strong><br />
____ can you trust? <a href="http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/social-engineering">Social engineering</a> tactics are so sneaky and <a href="http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/phishing">phishing</a> attempts are so sophisticated that you&#8217;re afraid to click a link in an email from your boss or your bank.<br />
a. Who<br />
b. Whom</p>
<p><span id="more-1742"></span><br />
<strong>Answer: b.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Explanation: </strong><br />
<em>Whom</em> is the correct choice for the true grammar stickler. As the object of the sentence, <em>whom</em> is the correct form. As the subject, it&#8217;s <em>who</em>.</p>
<p>However, I&#8217;ll go out on a limb here and suggest that it&#8217;s time to let this one go in most situations. When&#8217;s the last time you heard someone use <em>whom</em> in casual conversation? Formal writing is another story &#8212; there&#8217;s still a use for <em>whom</em> there. But for everyday use, I think it&#8217;s anachronistic. Nevertheless, if you&#8217;re going to use <em>whom</em>, you want to do it the right way. There&#8217;s nothing much that makes you look sillier than using a fussy, fusty word incorrectly.</p>
<p>@GrammarGirl Mignon Fogarty explains <a href="http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-whom.aspx">who versus whom</a> in much greater detail. She also offers this example of bad grammar:</p>
<p><em>I know, it&#8217;s shocking, but the Rolling Stones were being grammatically incorrect when they belted out the song &#8220;Who Do You Love?&#8221; which I think was originally written by Bo Diddley.</em></p>
<p>Ha. One suspects that &#8220;Whom do you love?&#8221; couldn&#8217;t pack the same rock &#8216;n&#8217; roll oomph as &#8220;Who do you love?&#8221;</p>
<p>There&#8217;s a place for <em>whom</em>, but that place is getting smaller all the time. IMO, it belongs in formal writing and, possibly, some rarified circles of society &#8212; but I wouldn&#8217;t know about that. Who uses <em>whom</em> in writing anymore, let alone in everyday speech? If you say, for example, &#8220;Whom do you wish to speak to?&#8221; (but let&#8217;s face it &#8212; someone who uses <em>whom</em> is more likely to say &#8220;To whom do you wish to speak?&#8221;), odds are, whoever is calling will think you are a prissy stick.</p>
<p>The situation is much worse if you use <em>whom</em> incorrectly: People who don&#8217;t recognize the error will think you&#8217;re a prissy stick and people who do recognize it will think you&#8217;re a dimwit AND a prissy stick.</p>
<p>My advice? Use <em>whom</em> correctly when you can&#8217;t avoid it &#8212; but avoid it when you can.</p>
<p><img src="http://http.cdnlayer.com/itke/blogs.dir/8/files/2009/07/logo_twitter.gif" alt="" /> Follow me on <a href="http://twitter.com/tao_of_grammar">Twitter @tao_of_grammar</a></p>
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