Im an idiot. Explain to me "which" vs "that" and how to use the word "whom& (1 Viewer)

[Giant Lobster]

Aiight, I shudve asked these questions wayy before yr 11 but somehow I managed to put it off till now:

How do u distinguish which is appropriate? (besides the obvious cases such as this question itself )

"The door that closed"
"The door which closed"

They both make sense, but im pretty sure in this case "that" shud be used. Logically, I dunno why, it just sounds right. Im sure there are more baffling cases but I cant think of anything better right now so can any1 explain to be how to differentiate between the two?

And how do u use the word "whom"? Does this make sense: "To whom was this sent?"
wat about this extract from my essay: "...that princesses are to be rescued and nurtured by a prince, whom is often superior both in status and wealth."

yeh im pretty stupid. thanks.

 

[Lazarus]

that/which - http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/which.html
(including the commentary by Jack Lynch)

who/whom - http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/who.html

 

[*~Dazed~*]

i got told by my english teacher that you are better off not using whom because its a bad reflection on you if you use it incorrectly... just stay safe and use who when you are not entirely sure

 

[jnothman]

The deal with that and which is generally the following:

'that' is used to say something about an object, generally
'which' is used to describe the action of an object, and not it itself

In some ways that describes an object before an event, which describes something after an event.

eg. "I finally read the poster, which was the right thing to do"
"I finally read the poster that bothered me"



Although maybe it's easier not to use as it's dropping out of the language, I'll explain whom.
Whom is used as the OBJECT of a sentence, rather than a SUBJECT, where "who" would be used. This is defined differently in different languages so I'll simplify it below, but the subject is basically the word that does a verb action, and the object is the thing upon which that action is done.

In practice, the easy way to tell, is by knowing that "I" is used in subject position rather than "me" which is used as the object. "I ate chocolate", "chocolate ate me"

Therefore, replace the "who(m)" word with "I" or "me" (same for "he" and "him" or "she" and "her") and see which suits better. "Who ate chocolate?", "Chocolate ate whom?"

Eg.
"To ___ does this belong?"

"To me does this belong" sounds better than "To I does this belong" (or "To him this belongs" rather than "To he this belongs")

Therefore we say "To whom does this belong?"

- Joel

 

[iambored]

Originally posted by jnothman

hey i recognise that name - u've put some notes on the site

 

[BlackJack]

As you may have seen from his sig, he had a site devoted to notes.

 

[ezzy85]

i was looking at an exempler response from the standards package and the person used + instead of and. if that isnt a bad reflection on the student, then surely it wont matter if its who or whom? chances are, the marker wont notice it or wont even know themselves.

 

[+:: $i[Q]u3 ::+]

the exemplar response for paper 1, section 1 is an absolute shocker.. the first sentence doesn't make sense.. check it up... and it still got 15 (???)

the language comes into it for the creative and the essays, but i swear, that unseen section is completely screwed up.

 

[Giant Lobster]

Originally posted by jnothman
The deal with that and which is generally the following:

'that' is used to say something about an object, generally
'which' is used to describe the action of an object, and not it itself

In some ways that describes an object before an event, which describes something after an event.

eg. "I finally read the poster, which was the right thing to do"
"I finally read the poster that bothered me"



Although maybe it's easier not to use as it's dropping out of the language, I'll explain whom.
Whom is used as the OBJECT of a sentence, rather than a SUBJECT, where "who" would be used. This is defined differently in different languages so I'll simplify it below, but the subject is basically the word that does a verb action, and the object is the thing upon which that action is done.

In practice, the easy way to tell, is by knowing that "I" is used in subject position rather than "me" which is used as the object. "I ate chocolate", "chocolate ate me"

Therefore, replace the "who(m)" word with "I" or "me" (same for "he" and "him" or "she" and "her") and see which suits better. "Who ate chocolate?", "Chocolate ate whom?"

Eg.
"To ___ does this belong?"

"To me does this belong" sounds better than "To I does this belong" (or "To him this belongs" rather than "To he this belongs")

Therefore we say "To whom does this belong?"

- Joel

hey thanks that was very helpful! aiight i *think* i know now.