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So, my professor wrote this in one of the assignments he had posted:
First, your group will need to become familiar with the big picture - whom our client is
and how a database might support your client's needs.
Sure enough, "whom" is the object pronoun, so it seems right, but um, it's not. It's not! What's the deal with "to be?" I know a little bit of Latin (I'm proud of that - my thumbs would be under my suspenders if I were wearing any), and I know that you use the subject pronoun as the object pronoun. This is the same with English, right? Can I feel smug or what? There are some times it really sounds goofy. "This is she" on the phone sounds correct," but "That's me" sounds better than "that's I" whether it's correct or not.
I don't know. Maybe you do.
If you're not wearing suspenders, I hope your pants haven't fallen down!
As I understand it, your explanation about the case of the pronoun when the verb is "to be" (or other linking verb) is 100%. "Who" is correct; that clause is "Our client is XXX," and as you predict you need the subject pronoun.
That French guy on the boards should pop up in a second about how French would do the "This is I differently": They'd use "moi," the usual objective pronoun, instead. I speak French very poorly so I defer to him.
You talk about what sounds right, and I think this in today's spoken English "whom" almost always sounds pretentious and stuffy, no matter how grammatical. That's probably why your prof wrote it - sounds erudite. I want to be correct, but I want to sound normal, so I do the only thing I can when my what I'm talking about calls for "whom": I mumble.
S
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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