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Who/whom

Posted by Henry on May 24, 2003

In Reply to: Who/whom posted by R. Berg on May 21, 2003

: : : : : Believe it or not, this sentence was in an article on the Opinion page in today's Times:
: : : : : 'Anyone, whoever they are, could be a ... star in the movies.'

: : : : Pitiful. That could have been corrected so easily by deleting "whoever they are."

: : : ...or, if one felt one desperately needed to intensify the phrase, by replacing the execrably incorrect "whoever they are" with "no matter who".

: : Usage question: Would "no matter whom" be hypercorrect, or just plain incorrect?

: It would be incorrect. "To be" needs the nominative case at both ends.

There are two forces at work here, grammar and idiom. "It is I" is certainly grammatically correct but in practice everyone says "It's me!" Idiom sometimes wins the battle.

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