Anyway, I was at a middle school the other day in a Read 180 class. For those who don't know, Read 180 is designed to help older kids read better. It is basically an elementary school design, where there is a large group instruction, then kids break into smaller groups were one group takes a quiz on a computer, one group goes to the reading carpet, and the last group gets small group instruction from the teacher over the day's lesson. I don't know if it really helps them or not, because you still kind of have to want to read better in order to learn to read better.
First period was my planning period, but I stayed in the room to watch another teacher do this Read 180 system. I guess it went ok, but the guy did something that really bothered me.
In the story they read the word whom was used. One of the kids in the first small group asked the teacher what whom meant. He responded with a pretty good answer for these kids: "Whom is sort of like another word for who, so when you see that, just think who and you'll be alright."
Eh, not correct, but what the hell, huh? They don't need to be confused with all the grammar stuff if they don't know how to read, right?
So I was fine with that until the next small group came over and the teacher starts trying to make himself sound smarter than he is (see grammar lesson 1). He volunteers his wisdom of pronouns and their usage by telling this group and the next one that the word whom is plural, y'all . . . PLURAL for the word who. He goes on to say, "In this story there is more than one person, so instead of saying who, the author says whom because it is the plural form of who."
I didn't say anything at that moment, because like I said, the students didn't need to be confused, and I didn't say anything to the teacher later because I didn't really want this guy teaching kids something he didn't fully understand anyway. But for those of you who would like to know, here is the correct way to use who and whom:
First of all, whom is more formal and is often simply not used in American English. But, if used, it must be used correctly, please. And, as with many cases of poor grammar, one must really know the parts of speech and their form, function, and position usages. Most people don't, which is why people often screw this up.
Who is always in the subjective case. It functions as the subject of a sentence or clause, or as a predicate noun. Consider these sentences:
Who is going to the game tonight? (Who is the subject verb phrase is going)
I don't care who goes. (Who is the subject of the verb goes)
I am the one who's driving. (Who is the subject of the verb is driving)
I am who I am. (Who is a predicate nominative, that is a noun in the predicate of a sentence that names the subject.)
All of the above are sentences in which the word who is used correctly.
Whom, on the other hand, is an objective case pronoun. It is used as the object of a preposition, a direct object, or indirect object.
Consider these sentences:
For whom was this letter written? (object of the preposition for)
With whom will you be going? (object of the preposition with)
You drove whom to the game? (stuffy sounding I know, but correctly used as the direct object of the verb drove)
I will give whom the tickets? (clunky sounding and not used often, but correctly used as the indirect object of the verb will give)
Again, I realize the last two sentences there are strange sounding, which is why Americans really don't talk like that. But no where, NO WHERE is whom used to represent plurality as in more than one person! The teacher was just trying to sound smart in front of dumb kids and a dumb substitute teacher, not knowing that he was sounding really dumb in front of someone who really knows English grammar.
If you don't know which words to use, please just use the one that sounds normal. Do not try to make yourself sound formal if you are going to misuse our language.
Thanks again.
