Just in Case . . .

Have you ever wished that you could be spared the small agonies of choice between “who” and “whom” or “whoever” and “whomever”? Have you ever wished that there were some sort of schematic you could use to determine the dynamics of a sentence—before you fatally misspeak?

Well, dear readers, there is. Such a schematic is called a sentence diagram, and when Ms. Picky was a mere slip of a girl in school, she was taught how to make sentence diagrams. Unfortunately, such diagramming has become a lost art, with the result that, today, untold numbers of people are forced to suffer in silence, as they make painful decisions, trying to guess—as best they can without the proper tools—what the correct case of a pronoun should be. 

Maybe we can make some of the darkness light. Let’s begin by talking about the case of pronouns, since that is the presenting quandary. “Who” is subjective case; “whom” is objective case; and. . . . A look at the chart below will show some of the other possibilities for pronoun case, by person and number:

Now look at the diagram of sentence 1 at the top of the page:

Sentence 1

Give it to me.

The explanatory text goes like this:

(To start)
Q. What is the predicate* of the sentence?

A. Gives.

(To determine the subject of the sentence)
Q. Who or what gives?

A. You give.
(“You” does not actually appear in the sentence, but is implicit, because the sentence is addressing the listener or reader (who is “you”) and so, because it is the subject of the sentence, “you” is in the subjective case.)

(To determine the object of the predicate)
Q. You give what?

A. You give it.
(“It,” because it is the object of the predicate, is in the objective case.)

(To determine the object of the preposition “to”)
Q. Whom do you give it to?

A. You give it to me.
(“Me,” because it is the object of the preposition, is in the objective case.)

But now let’s look at the second sentence, which is a little trickier.

Sentence 2 
Give it to whoever wants it.

You notice that the pronoun “whoever” is in the subjective case (also called nominative case)—but you know that a preposition—in this case, “to”—always takes the objective case. Perhaps the sentence should read:

Give it to whomever wants it.

Or perhaps not.

The diagram of the sentence settles the confusion and illustrates the correct response. Look at the diagram of sentence 2, at the top of the page. The explanatory text for sentence 2 goes like this:

(To determine the predicate)
Q. What is the predicate (or verb)?

A. Give.

(To determine the subject of the sentence)
Q. Who or what gives? 

A. You give (you understood).
(“You,” because it is the subject, is in the subjective case.)

(To determine the object of the predicate)
Q. You give what?

A. You give it.
(“It,” because it is the object of the predicate, is in the objective case.)

(To determine the object of the preposition)
Q. Whom do you give it to?

A. To [whoever wants it].

Wait a minute. Doesn’t the object of the preposition have to be just one word?

No, it does not. In sentence 2, you are not giving it to “whoever,” but, rather, to [whoever wants it]. The entire “whoever wants it” clause is the object of the preposition “to.” Now let’s see how the dependent clause fits into the diagram and run through the explanatory text for that part of the diagram.

(To determine the predicate of the dependent clause)
Q. What is the predicate (or verb)?

A. Wants.

(To determine the subject of the dependent clause)
Q. Who or what wants? 
A. Whoever wants.
(“Whoever,” because it is the subject of the dependent clause, is in the subjective case.)

So, now, we can respond to the original question, “Do you say  ‘whomever’ or  ‘whomever’?” The diagram has made the answer clear. “Whoever” is the subject of the dependent clause, and, therefore, it should be in the subjective case, and the sentence should, quite properly, be:

Give it to whoever wants it.

Voilà! 


If you’ve read this far, congratulations! It does seem tedious, but diagramming is like simple arithmetic, and it works. For now, however, just sit down and put your feet up. Pop a chocolate truffle into your mouth, and pour yourself a cognac—you’ve earned it!

_____

*For purposes of explaining this briefly, the predicate of the sentence is the verb, without which there can be no sentence.




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