Who vs. whom

Yes, it should be whomever--it is the object of the verb "to give (to)."

A good way to be sure in every case is to substitute the third person singular. If you would say "she," then use who. If you would say "her," then use whom.

Yes, but...
How about (whoever solves the puzzle) as a noun clause, the whole being object of the preposition and the whoever as subject of the verb solves?

I see your point, but you are giving $5,000 to someone, and therefore an objective pronoun is required. If you wrote: "Whoever solves the puzzle will be given $5,000."--then it is obviously the subject, because of the action of solving.

berm,

IMO, "whomever solves the puzzle", in its entirety, is the object.

"Whom" is an object; "who" is a subject (agreeing with Craven and Setanta). But, also know that "whom" should be used, technically, as an interrogative too: "Whom did you see?"

The best way I used to teach myself to use "whom" was that it will almost always be part of a prepositional phrase ("to whomever" is a good example of such a phrase) or followed by a noun ("the person whom I know"). And, remember the interrogative.

Is it me?
I can't get past "...whoever solves..." as a subject - verb; should I just let it go?

But, in this sentence, "whoever solves" isn't a subject-verb relationship. The subject, "I," is giving $5,000 to the object, "whomever." Plus, "to whomever" is one of those prepositional phrases.

smog has it, who(m)ever is not the subject of this sentence, I is. <<== Just trying to work in an abusage-free "I is" for the day.

Okay
Thanks.

My pleasure.

I love grammar.

I like grammar and its logic, but it's the infuriating "fine points" that drive me crazy.

I went to college when grammar wasn't taught, so I never really learned it. Interestingly, when I began teaching English, I taught myself what I needed to know, which was just more than my students. I am pretty good at the "standard stuff," but as we have seen, the deeper issies are sometimes beyond me.

Hey, bermbits. Nice to see you back. Just for my own edification, I seem to remember a special case in this instance. Whoever solves the puzzle is a noun clause functioning as the object of a preposition, but is the only time when a clause in the objective case is really in the nominative case, because "who" is the subject of the clause. Does that make sense? Or have I just paraphrased smog.

Anyway, thanks for the memories.

Sorry, smog. I hate grammar.

Letty - you have put life back in what I was trying to say; I was ready to let it go, but...

Let's see what others say.

I was prompted to do a Google search about this topic. I found this post from English Forums that talks about a very similar sentence: http://www.englishforums.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=13921.




But, I decided to search a bit more. I found this website: http://members.rogers.com/scripta-word-services/article-moregrammar.html.



So, now I was confused, since I had found documentation supporting both options, although the internet is often unreliable. I decided to break out my brand new Chicago Manual of Style and look up usage notes for "who" and "whom." (My American Heritage Dictionary has usage notes, but they weren't very clear.)



Letty, the "special case" that you remembered actually appears to be the correct one, for the exact reason you stated. "Who," in berm's sentence, is the subject of a clause and is the proper choice.

I went back and read my dictionary once more:



I knew that the example sentence in this quote was the correct way to phrase it, but I neglected to apply this rule to the sentnece given by berm.

I believe that berm was describing this certain case earlier, but I had believed before that "whomever" would always be used when following a preposition, but I was in fact incorrect. There is this special case where "to whoever" is the proper term.

So, Letty, berm, thanks for offering the debate and prompting me to research this topic more fully. I can proudly say that I learned something new today; and, even better, something about grammar, a topic about which I love learning new things!

My goodness, smog. Do you mean that I remembered something that obscure?

I do remember this about bermbits. Not many folks know what the berm of the road is...hee hee.

Oh, yes, I am a real soft shoulder (or mound of earth).

Well, bermbits. Be very careful when you ride that hawg.

How did you know I'm a biker? (My memory isn't what it was....)

You know, berm, I remember the oddest things. Long ago on Abuzz, we laughed about it.