Friday, January 13

Grammar tips

We recently worked with some pronouns in the vocabulary section, and today we will dive even deeper into this issue, focusing on relative clause pronouns, exploring some differences between who and whom.

Who is a subject pronoun and must, in formal writing, come directly before a verb. 

• “António Guterres, who is the United Nations Secretary-General, declared that Brazil’s democracy has the unwavering support of the UN.”

Whom is an object pronoun and can be used in two ways: (1) before a subject and a verb or (2) as the object of a preposition.

• “Viatcheslav Molotov, whom Joseph Stalin worked with, was one of the architects of the USSR's role in the Second World War.”

It is important to note that, after a preposition, you must use whom.

• “Viatcheslav Molotov, with whom Joseph Stalin worked, was one of the architects of the USSR's role in the Second World War.”

It is also important to understand that whom is more formal, primarily used in formal written English, while who is more commonly used in spoken English.

• "Viatcheslav Molotov, whom Joseph Stalin worked with, was one of the architects of the USSR's role in the Second World War." (formal written English)
• "Viatcheslav Molotov, who Joseph Stalin worked with, was one of the architects of the USSR's role in the Second World War." (informal spoken English)

Finally, we present a 2013 TPS question to reinforce this general rule:

Question 39.2 (CACD 1st Phase, 2013) Determine if the following statement is true or false: In the sentence “Their cue came from the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, who recently suggested that the economic recovery might allow the central bank to ease its efforts to stimulate the economy.” the relative pronoun “who” may be replaced by “whom” in more formal contexts.

To answer this question correctly, you should know that whom can never replace who when directly in front of a verb: “who recently suggested (...).”

Stay tuned for more grammar tips in our CACD Newsletter!