meet whom he loves

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A long time ago, my teacher told us we could not say

-She did not meet whom he loves.

But today I heard on the radio:

-She did not see whom he struck.

If you agree the first one is wrong and the second correct, what is the difference between them?

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@WBYeats,

Your teacher was wrong. Whom is the objective pronoun. The sentence "She did not meet whom he loves" can be said to be awkward, but it is not incorrect. A useful way to determine whether or not one should use whom is to substitute the third person, singular pronoun. "He loves Sarah. She did not meet her." Therefore, if the person is unspecified, "whom" is the correct way to refer to that person. "He struck Al. She did not see him." Therefore, one would use "whom."

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By the way, i was not sufficiently specific. Whom is the interrogative, objective pronoun. Interrogative means asking a question. It is objective because if is the object of a verb or a preposition:

Whom did she give it to? She gave it to him.

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

By the way, i was not sufficiently specific. Whom is the interrogative, objective pronoun. Interrogative means asking a question.

This is what I was taught at the age of 7, as the "he/him rule". You answer the question. Who wrote the letter? He wrote the letter. To whom did you write? I wrote to him.

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@contrex,

It's not purely interrogative, surely?

"To whom it may concern..."

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@WBYeats,

Quote:

She did not meet whom he loves.

I cannot think where such a sentence might be used.

1 Reply

@McTag,

McTag wrote:

"To whom it may concern..."

Does anybody use that any more? Anyhow, whom does it concern? It concerns him! Or whatever. The who/whom war is over, really, and 'whom' has lost.

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@McTag,

McTag wrote:

Quote:
She did not meet whom he loves.

I cannot think where such a sentence might be used.

Laura set out determined to find Jim's inamorata, the sender of the fevered text messages she had discovered on his portable telephone. She departed under the watchful eye of Bozo, the golden retriever, who understood everything. She searched all the low bars and gambling dens of the rough part of town, but drew a blank. She returned home disconsolate. "She did not meet whom he loves" thought the dog.

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I've used "to whom it may concern" many times in business correspondence, most often as a letter of introduction to a company when i didn't know who the appropriate contact person was.

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@Setanta,

That's very interesting, Set.

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@WBYeats,

Quote:

But today I heard on the radio:

-She did not see whom he struck.

If you agree the first one is wrong and the second correct, what is the difference between them?

The difference is you've discovered radio.

Use who instead.

1 Reply

@knaivete,

Students of English as a foreign language tend to take our replies seriously, and they want to learn English. If you've got nothing better to do than make smartass replies, do it in threads which are not for English learners.

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Thank you~

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@Setanta,

Quote:

If you've got nothing better to do than make smartass replies, do it in threads which are not for English learners.

I said use who instead.

Have you forgotten that you took all the piss out of WBYeats and then some in an earlier thread and now you are all contrite?

2 Replies

@knaivete,

You said use "who" instead, and you're wrong. Allow me to modify my suggestion to you. If your English is that poor, you should stay out of these types of threads altogether.

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@knaivete,

I've never tried to take the piss out of any learner, and never would. And,

I don't agree with this

Quote:

The who/whom war is over, really, and 'whom' has lost.

Losing maybe, but not lost I'd say

"therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee"

"Whose is this? To whom does this belong?" may still be heard around these parts, almost as much as "Who does this belong to?

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@McTag,

McTag wrote:

"To whom does this belong?" may still be heard around these parts, almost as much as "Who does this belong to?

If I held up a pen and said that at work, I'd be greeted with "Uh?", and have the piss taken out of me, and these are people who've been to "Uni".

1 Reply

@contrex,

I heard "whom" used on BBC newsreel this evening, but I'm struggling to remember the exact wording. Something like,
"...customers to whom compensation will be paid because of protracted power failures..."

It's still alive and kicking in some sheltered corners of the language. And used like that, it's not at all archaic imho.

1 Reply

@McTag,

I don't work at the BBC.

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@Setanta,

How is Knaivete wrong, Set? You have at least as bad a track
record on language as McTag so you ought to be a little more
circumspect in your accusations.
Feel free to quote me, Knaivete. Setanta is a major chickenshit.

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