Grammar Chant

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is John from Orangeburg, South Carolina, way down in the south. How are you guys today?

Oh, we’re super, thanks. Thanks for calling, John. What can we do for you?

I was calling in response to a call you had on your January 17th show who was asking about a simple mnemonic for who and whom. The chiropractor from San Diego.

I had an English teacher when I was in ninth grade, a long time ago, who had a little exercise that she made us do. It was sort of a chant, and I’ve never forgotten it, and I can be fairly confident that none of my classmates have ever forgotten it. And it’s very simple.

It was a two-part chant. The first part, I’ll just do the whole thing, and then you can see what you think.

Okay, great.

Okay. Himma, humma. Hee, hoo. She would have the entire class chant that over and over. And if you ever do that in a group of people, you will never, ever forget it. And the idea behind it is that whom could be safely used anywhere where you could substitute him in the sentence, and who would be used anywhere you could substitute he as the subject and object.

Shall we all do it together? So everybody at home, let’s do it together. One, two, three. Himma. Himma. Himma. Himma. He. Who. Fantastic. Or not.

And what was your teacher’s name? Her name was Celeste Daniel. She was a very tiny little lady, and when she would do the him-ma-huma part, she would sort of hunch over, and it was almost as if she were dancing around a bonfire, him-ma-huma.

Oh, I see. Yeah, and then for the he-who, she would go into a falsetto.

That’s brilliant. And it works for you still?

It does. As a matter of fact, I said to my brother the other day, him-ma-huma, and he responded with he who.

Nice. That’s beautiful. Perfect, John. Thanks. That’s beautiful.

So to illustrate that, to use him and whom in a sentence, like if you go on Twitter and it says who to follow, is that correct or incorrect? You would follow him, so it would be whom to follow.

Exactly. Whom to follow. Darn you, Twitter. You’re right. You’re right. That’s a great formula, and we didn’t mention that in the call with the chiropractor who was looking for a formula. So that’s great.

When in doubt, see if you can use him instead of whom and he instead of who. Super. John, thank you for the tip and the song.

You’re welcome. I enjoy your show.

Okay. Our pleasure. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. Bye.

I love it when English teachers give you some kind of mnemonic like that, and you see somebody from your class 20 years later, and you say that, him-a-who-ma-hee-who. And it works. You don’t forget it. Celeste Daniels, we all thank you.

Yes. And teachers like you. Call us with your language questions, 877-929-9673, or email us. The address is words@waywordradio.org.