Hello!
In the sentence: ‘Jim,…I’ve known for 5 years, is my best friend.’ which relative pronoun does it fit? ‘who’ or ‘whom’? To me, both could be correct.
Thank you for your time!
Jim is the object of ‘I’ve known’ and so the relative pronoun must comply and be ‘whom’.
Alan
Your explanation is excellent.
But examine this pair of sentences.
Who are you talking to? is seen acceptable, while what is meant by this question is: To whom are you talking? Please comment.
This has to do with the stress on ‘who/whom’. In its initial position the ‘m’ gets lost but after the preposition ‘to’, ‘whom’ is stressed. Of course technically or rather grammatically ‘whom’ is required in either case.
Sorry Alan, I need you to confirm again.
It’s no doubt that Whom is the correct choice.
But I read some grammar books said that in modern grammar, Who is acceptable in relative clause to replace the object (whom plays this role in the past).
So, Is it Who also correct in this case too ?
Hello, everyone!
Waiyin Cheng, you are right! Both whom and who are correct in this case.
Just take a look at the example taken from “English Grammar in Use” (R.Murphy):
This morning I met Diane, whom (or who) I hadn’t seen for ages.
However, there’s a difference between them in terms of formality: whom is considered more formal. In any case, Alan is right about that: If you want to be more accurate or take a test/an exam in English Grammar you should use “whom”. )
Thanks, Alan.
Thank you, Foreigner.