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Can I use “whom” to refer to a non-person?
Unicorn Meta Zoo #1: Why another podcast?
Announcing the arrival of Valued Associate #679: Cesar ManaraWhat's the difference between “speak” and “talk”, grammatically speaking?Using the word “stick”Can you say “two groups of people stared at each other”?Do I change the person in a quote talking about myself?How many hours did you spend/spent studying for the test?Traditional explanation for 'I don't remember whom is whom'Specific use of “less” and “fewer” vis-à-vis the word “frequencies”Which is correct in this example? Who or whom? (example upon which my friends and two professional editors could not come to an agreement)Whom should I say is calling?Is this how one should use 'who', 'whoever', 'whom' and 'whomever'?
.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;
Person one says:
I'm switching my phone carrier from company X.
Person two replies:
To whom are you switching?
It feels wrong to me, but I don't know why or what the grammatical justification is.
Is it grammatically correct, or must "whom" only be used to refer to a person (i.e., with whom did you speak on the phone?"
grammar sentence whom reference
add a comment |
Person one says:
I'm switching my phone carrier from company X.
Person two replies:
To whom are you switching?
It feels wrong to me, but I don't know why or what the grammatical justification is.
Is it grammatically correct, or must "whom" only be used to refer to a person (i.e., with whom did you speak on the phone?"
grammar sentence whom reference
Collectives are sometimes seen as single entities and sometimes as the people who make them up - hence my bank are still dealing with it etc. In that use you are referring to people, so who is completely appropriate. If it seems off, it may because on some level you see the my bank are still dealing with it construction as informal, and sense a clash between that and to whom. If you said who are you switching to? nobody would bat an eyelid.
– Minty
2 hours ago
@Minty I agree with your last sentence, but is it definitely correct to use "whom" here? or is it just more appropriate to use "which"?
– Later_72
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Person one says:
I'm switching my phone carrier from company X.
Person two replies:
To whom are you switching?
It feels wrong to me, but I don't know why or what the grammatical justification is.
Is it grammatically correct, or must "whom" only be used to refer to a person (i.e., with whom did you speak on the phone?"
grammar sentence whom reference
Person one says:
I'm switching my phone carrier from company X.
Person two replies:
To whom are you switching?
It feels wrong to me, but I don't know why or what the grammatical justification is.
Is it grammatically correct, or must "whom" only be used to refer to a person (i.e., with whom did you speak on the phone?"
grammar sentence whom reference
grammar sentence whom reference
asked 3 hours ago
Later_72Later_72
32
32
Collectives are sometimes seen as single entities and sometimes as the people who make them up - hence my bank are still dealing with it etc. In that use you are referring to people, so who is completely appropriate. If it seems off, it may because on some level you see the my bank are still dealing with it construction as informal, and sense a clash between that and to whom. If you said who are you switching to? nobody would bat an eyelid.
– Minty
2 hours ago
@Minty I agree with your last sentence, but is it definitely correct to use "whom" here? or is it just more appropriate to use "which"?
– Later_72
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Collectives are sometimes seen as single entities and sometimes as the people who make them up - hence my bank are still dealing with it etc. In that use you are referring to people, so who is completely appropriate. If it seems off, it may because on some level you see the my bank are still dealing with it construction as informal, and sense a clash between that and to whom. If you said who are you switching to? nobody would bat an eyelid.
– Minty
2 hours ago
@Minty I agree with your last sentence, but is it definitely correct to use "whom" here? or is it just more appropriate to use "which"?
– Later_72
2 hours ago
Collectives are sometimes seen as single entities and sometimes as the people who make them up - hence my bank are still dealing with it etc. In that use you are referring to people, so who is completely appropriate. If it seems off, it may because on some level you see the my bank are still dealing with it construction as informal, and sense a clash between that and to whom. If you said who are you switching to? nobody would bat an eyelid.
– Minty
2 hours ago
Collectives are sometimes seen as single entities and sometimes as the people who make them up - hence my bank are still dealing with it etc. In that use you are referring to people, so who is completely appropriate. If it seems off, it may because on some level you see the my bank are still dealing with it construction as informal, and sense a clash between that and to whom. If you said who are you switching to? nobody would bat an eyelid.
– Minty
2 hours ago
@Minty I agree with your last sentence, but is it definitely correct to use "whom" here? or is it just more appropriate to use "which"?
– Later_72
2 hours ago
@Minty I agree with your last sentence, but is it definitely correct to use "whom" here? or is it just more appropriate to use "which"?
– Later_72
2 hours ago
add a comment |
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Collectives are sometimes seen as single entities and sometimes as the people who make them up - hence my bank are still dealing with it etc. In that use you are referring to people, so who is completely appropriate. If it seems off, it may because on some level you see the my bank are still dealing with it construction as informal, and sense a clash between that and to whom. If you said who are you switching to? nobody would bat an eyelid.
– Minty
2 hours ago
@Minty I agree with your last sentence, but is it definitely correct to use "whom" here? or is it just more appropriate to use "which"?
– Later_72
2 hours ago