Monday, June 30, 2008

An error common even among experienced writers






Get help if you are not sure.





But both .........are asking American voters to believe in them,..............

The above is part of a paragraph of an item of news appearing in a popular national English daily.

The said item of news is headlined "Who can Americans believe in?"

The first word in the headline is the interogative pronoun which is referring to the "them" in the first sentence above.

"Them" is in the objective case and so must the interogative pronoun in the headline be.

The headline, therefore, should have been "Whom can Americans believe in?" - such error being very common even among experienced writers.

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