Another Apostrophe Issue: Who's Son???

Among the many e-mails I've received in the past few days about the tragedy in Haiti, one referred to "a cousin who's son and his family live and work in Haiti."

Fortunately, this young man was able to get his wife and daughter evacuated from the country, and he has remained to help with the recovery. I hope you will keep him and all of those who are suffering and those who are trying to relieve that suffering in your prayers.

Meanwhile, I will use this Grammar Glitch to remind readers about the possessive of the word WHO. If you wish to use WHO to refer to a person and then refer to something or someone that belongs to that person, the proper form is WHOSE.

You would only use WHO'S in place of WHO + IS or WHO + HAS, as in the examples below:

Who's (Who is) in charge of this project?

Who's (Who has) been eating my porridge?

The phrase in the original example at the beginning of this post should read as follows:

...a cousin whose son and his family live and work in Haiti."

NOTE: Sometimes I receive comments from readers who say that the examples in my blog are too simple and elementary. Perhaps so, but as long as I continue to come across them over and over again in print and in business correspondence, I will continue to point them out and try to correct them.

Customers should be counted, too!

I said yesterday that AMOUNT and NUMBER continue to be a problem. That remains true today. There is a good letter to the editor in The Birmingham News this morning about the cappuccino flap. Personally, I like frothy milk in my decaf skimmed milk cappuccino. At least I can pretend I'm sipping that great liquid through whipped cream!

Celia Mayhew, who works at Starbucks, defended the cappuccino, but in doing so, she made this statement:

I work at Starbucks, and there is no way to comprehend the insane amount of customers that complain about the frothy milk within a cappuccino.

Insane or not, those customers can be counted. They are not sugar or salt or laundry, as I pointed out yesterday. Therefore, the sentence should read as follows:

I work at Starbucks, and there is no way to comprehend the insane number of customers who complain about frothy milk within a cappuccino.

BONUS COMMENT: Notice that I also changed the word THAT to WHO in this sentence. This is not an absolute rule, but it is a good "rule of thumb." Whenever you refer to people (or a person), use WHO instead of THAT.

Whoooo? or Whooom?

We have all struggled with when to use WHO and when to use WHOM. Even if I know that WHO is the subject form and WHOM is the object form, I still have to analyze the sentence to figure out which one to use.

The wedding article person at my local newspaper forgot to run an analysis before posting her wedding article last week. In talking about how the couple met, she wrote:

After dinner, they saw "The Chronicles of Narnia" with Chad's twin brother and his girlfriend, whom today is his wife.

Whoops! She should have used the subject form in this sentence because WHO is the subject of the second clause.

The sentence should read as follows:

After dinner, they saw "The Chronicles of Narnia" with Chad's twin brother and his girlfriend, who is now his wife.

Better, don't you think?

WHOOOO? or WHOOOOM?

It is often difficult to decide when to use WHO and when to use WHOM. Fortunately, this is not as frequent a problem in contemporary usage, but it still comes up from time to time.

The basic rule is that WHO goes in the subject slot and WHOM goes in the object slot. You have simple sentences like these:

Who is in charge of this project?

To whom were you speaking?

Things get a little muddier when you have a complex sentence where WHO or WHOM is part of a secondary clause. Look at this example from a recent Letter to the Editor in a local newspaper:

We also need to censure whomever drafted and carried out these terrible decisions.

At first glance (which is probably all the letter writer gave it), this appears to be correct. "WHOMEVER" seems to be the object of the preposition "to."

Actually, it is the WHOLE SECONDARY CLAUSE "whoever drafted and carried out these terrible decisions" that is the object of "to." Therefore, "whoever" is the SUBJECT of that secondary clause.

The sentence should read as follows:

We also need to censure whoever drafted and carried out these terrible decisions.

By the way, you should also be careful about the words "censure," "censor," and "sensor." They have very different meanings. Check your dictionary. If you'd like a post about using them, please send me a comment.

Monk Corrects Natalie on "Who" and "Whom"

If you haven't met detective Adrian Monk yet, you need to check out this entertaining USA Network dramedy. I'm not sure when it comes on because we "tivo" everything and watch it when we're in the mood, but you can check the website.

In the episode we watched last evening, Natalie (Monk's trusty assistant) asked him about getting something certified. "Certified by who?" she said.

Monk, in his muttering way, reworded her question immediately--before answering her question. "Certified by whom?" he corrected.

Monk was pointing out that WHO is the SUBJECT pronoun and could not be used as the OBJECT pronoun after the preposition BY.

WHO is bringing the dessert?

WHO wrote this detailed report?

WHOM is the OBJECT pronoun, for use, in this case, after the preposition.

FOR WHOM was this position created?

BY WHOM were you given permission to attend?

Personally, I would simplify the second example here by making WHO the subject and getting rid of the prepositional phrase:

WHO gave you permission to attend?

Who? Whom? Today's "Gotcha" Grammar Glitch

Using WHO and WHOM correctly is not too difficult if you already grasp the concept of subject spot in a sentence or clause as opposed to object spot in a sentence or clause.

Simply put, use WHO in the subject spot or WHOM in the object spot. The trick, of course, is to be sure you figure out which is which.

Chanda Temple Guster forgot this concept when she wrote a short review of Jenny Levin's new book of practical fashion advice from Harper's Bazaar magazine. Describing Levin, Chanda wrote the following:

Levin, whom today is a freelance writer living in Hong Kong, also addresses how to look fabulous at any age....

Whoops! In this sentence, the choice should be WHO because "who" is in the subject spot with "is" as its verb. There are two clauses here, and EACH ONE needs its own subject.

Levin also addresses how to look fabulous at any age.
...who is today a freelance writer living in Hong Kong...

Even when you combine these into one sentence, the inserted clause still needs the subject form WHO. The sentence should read as follows:

Levin, who today is a freelance writer living in Hong Kong, also addresses how to look fabulous at any age....

I hope this helps you keep the WHO and WHOM issue straight. And here's hoping the New Year finds you looking and feeling fabulous at whatever age you take on in 2008!