"Whomever" vs. "Whoever". Do you know when to use either? Me neither. (Hey, that rhymes!)
Anyways, I'm in the middle of composing a very long and detailed email. Microsoft Outlook has this really neat feature where it will detect grammar incorrectness and underline it with a green squiggly line. You can either ignore it or do something about it.
If you right click on the word, one of the items that pops up in the pop-up menu gives you suggested "correct" words to use. So I right-clicked on "whomever". It gave me "whoever" as a suggestion. I select that and the word changed.
Wait! It's still underlined with the green squiggly line! So I right click again and lo and behold, the suggested "correct" word to use is "whomever". I've just now flipped back and forth between the two words. Apparently, it's confused and doesn't know which one to pick.
Yes, computers are stupid.
(My hubby has been trying to convince me for years of this, despite being a former IT guy, so he'll love this post.)
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5 comments:
I haven't been saying computers are "stupid" (although, they really are only as stupid or smart as the designers), but that they are a "waste of time"...and it's not *despite* the fact that I'm a former IT guy, but it's *because* I was an IT guy that I've been trying to convince people of this.
But it paid the bills...
I bet you DC will have the answer to you whoms vs whos. He has an answer for EVERYTHING. It's like he's some kind of whizz kid.
I agree with "Hubby (Irene's)" /inside joke. Computers are not stupid nor smart, they just magnify the "whatever" of the designers, developers and users. I have a full bag of those stories to tell.
Simple rule:
You use "whom" when the "answer" would be "him/her". You use "who" when the answer would be he/she"
For example....
WHOEVER wrote that book is a genius. (because "he" or
she" wrote that book).
WHOMEVER that coat belongs to must be very tall. (Because that coat belongs to "him" or "her").
Clear as mud?
I agree with daisie, whoever she is...
I think "whoever" is an indefinite subject, whereas "whomever" is an indefinite object.
A subject does the verb, and an object receives the verb.
WHOEVER kicks children should be emasculated.
Fred kicks WHOMEVER he wants to.
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