So you say to people who you think you may have injured, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.'
The above sentence is taken from an e-mail which I have received recently.
Here, the 'who' appears to be inappropriate. It should represent the people you may have injured and 'injured' is a transitive verb that takes an object.
As the relative pronoun 'who' (in the subjective case) should be in the objective case, the sentence should have been: So you say to people whom you think you may have injured, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.'
The clause 'you think' is a parenthetical clause/parenthesis which can be set off by commas and it has no grammatical relations in the sentence.
Monday, May 9, 2011
The ever-confusing "Who/Whom"
Posted by Kengt, Penang (Seeking correct English) at 9:07 AM
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