When to use who, whom

In reply to a reader on when to use “whom” and “who”, the relevant column of a newspaper quoted as one of the examples as follows:-

“The girl who she trusted has let her down.” (“who” is a relative pronoun used as the object of the clause “who she trusted”)
In a more formal style, the above sentence would be written “The girl whom she trusted has let her down.”

The above example appears to suggest that both “whom” and “who” can be used in the given sentence except that the use of the former is in a more formal style. I find this confusing and has written an e-mail to the editor who has accordingly published it in the newspaper:-

Friday September 18, 2009
When to use who, whom
OPEN CHANNEL

I REFER to the answer given to Cece (Mind Our English, Aug 27) on the use of who/whom.

The use of “who” or “whom” has confused many including experienced writers who often go wrong if they are not vigilant enough. Perhaps, some writers indulge in informal usages, sometimes, for being natural or for fluency.

In the reference book contributed/edited by 12 experts on English (many of whom are PhD holders) and published by Reader’s Digest guiding readers to speak and write better, it says that “who” or “whom” and “whoever” or “whomever” often cause difficulties and that in practice, “who” is widely used in both roles (subject and object), especially in speech; “whom” is regarded as rather formal. It does, however, show the correct usages of “who” and “whom”.

In the sentence, “The girl who she trusted has let her down” (which is quite similar to a sentence quoted in the reference book showing “who” is the only correct form to be used), it could lead readers to analyse and treat “she trusted” to be a parenthetical clause/parenthesis. The sentence would then be incomplete.

In fact, MOE published an article on the subject by Oh Teik Theam on Sept 29, 2006 in which the writer had given very good advice about the correct usage.

Such advice which can be an easy guide is reproduced herein:-

“To decide when to use ‘who’ or ‘whom’, apply this test: if the thought in the who/whom clause is best expressed by he/she/they, use ‘who’; if him/her/them does the trick, use ‘whom’.”

Perhaps, if we do not concern ourselves so much with the informal usage, the confusion will be greatly reduced, if not eliminated. – Kengt, Penang

Understanding concord

Make your rules precise and consistent. If you have a tendency to forget, write them down and place it where everyone in the family can see them.

The above paragraph is taken from a newspaper article. Is there anything wrong with the paragraph?

If you find nothing wrong, you need to know what concord is.

Concord is agreement between words in case, person, gender or number.

Now, the paragraph is reproduced below with numbers of words shown in brackets that are not in concord:-

Make your rules (plural) precise and consistent. If you have a tendency to forget, write them (plural) down and place it (singular) where everyone in the family can see them (plural). These words [them (plural), it (singular) and them (plural)] are pronouns and they are all representing/referring to the same 'rules (plural)'.

Concord, therefore, requires the paragraph to be recast as - "Make your rules precise and consistent. If you have a tendency to forget, write them down and place them where everyone in the family can see them." Actually, this last them is redundant and can be conveniently deleted without affecting the meaning/sense of the paragraph.

Proximity Principle

In my earlier posting of September 7, 2009 (Diction), I touched upon proximity principle (or verb agreement must be with the closest noun).

Now, let us look at the following sentence taken from the same newspaper:-

In Malaysia, 73% agree that experiencing orgasms impact on overall sexual wellbeing.

'Impact' above is used as a verb. Apparently, the writer has applied the proximity principle and based on 'orgasms' as the noun (which is a plural one) to use the plural verb 'impact'; but this is not the case as the actual noun is 'experiencing' which is a gerund (or verbal noun) singular in nature.

Hence, the sentence should be 'In Malaysia, 73% agree that experiencing orgasms impacts on overall sexual wellbeing.'

Diction

While proper tools will help complete a good job, good diction forms the basis of a clear message.

Below are two sentences taken from an Advertorial of a popular national English daily:-

(A) So if you or a loved one wear dentures, here are some useful tips.
(B) If you have eaten or drunk hot foods and beverages, it may need to be reapplied.

Sentence (A) is ignoring proximity principle and should have been - So if you or a loved one wears dentures, here are some useful tips.

Sentence (B) has an awkward arrangement of words which should have been rearranged to appear: If you have eaten hot foods or drunk hot beverages, it may need to be reapplied. However, if you use a common action verb like 'take' or 'consume' (while noting that the phrase 'hot foods and beverages' does not necessarily mean 'hot foods and hot beverages'), the sentence can be less clumsy as 'If you have taken hot foods or hot beverages, it may need to be reapplied.'

First, learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
-- Epictetus