Re: "To whom"

On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 08:42:13AM +0000, Chris Bates wrote:
> As far as I'm concerned, "the person to whom it happened" isn't
> standard written English, it's the tortured English of old fashioned
> style grammar teachers.
Haven't you been paying attention?  Many of us on this list use "whom"
quite naturally in our everyday "colloquial" speech.   And it is still the
form required in *formal* written English, which is pretty much the only
form that *has* a "standard".  The rule still appears in the style guides
sitting on the desks of all the writers here at CNN, for instance.

Now, most writing isn't formal; even English classes teach an informal
style these days.  But the rule is still there, whether you choose to
follow it or not, and there's certainly no call for insulting people who so
choose.  And note, saying something is "colloquial" or "non-standard"
*isn't* an insult; saying it's "old-fashioned", "tortured", and
"pretentious" is.

-Marcos

Reply