There’s an ongoing debate in English about when you should use who and when to use whom.According to the rules of formal grammar,who should be used in the subject position in a sentence,while whom should be used in the object position,and also after a preposition.

 

　　在英語中，對于何時用who何時用whom的問題，一直有持續(xù)的討論。依據(jù)正式語法中的規(guī)則，who替代句子中主語的位置，whom替代句子中賓語的位置，也可用于介詞后。

 

　　用于問句當(dāng)中：

 

　　Who made this decision?[here,who is the subject of the sentence]

 

　　誰做的這個決定？[who在句子中當(dāng)主語]

 

　　Whom do you think we should support?[here,whom is the object of support]

 

　　你認(rèn)為我們該支持誰？[whom充當(dāng)support的賓語]

 

　　To whom do you wish to speak?[here,whom is following the preposition to]

 

　　你希望和誰講話？[whom做介詞to的賓語]

 

　　In practice,most people never use whom like this in speech because it sounds extremely formal.They don't use whom at all,and instead use who in all contexts,i.e.:

 

　　實際上，因為whom的表達太正式，大多數(shù)人在講話中并不使用whom。在所有的場合中都使用who代替，比如：

 

　　Who do you think we should support?

 

　　你認(rèn)為我們該支持誰？

 

　　Who do you wish to speak to?

 

　　你認(rèn)為我們該支持誰？

 

　　作為關(guān)系代詞

 

　　Who and whom are also relative pronouns,used to link one clause to another.For example:

 

　　Who和whom也都也作為關(guān)系代詞，用于連接兩個子句。比如：

 

　　The man whom you met yesterday is coming to dinner.

 

　　你昨天見到的人即將來吃飯。

 

　　The children,who had been as good as gold,then suddenly started misbehaving.

 

　　這些孩子，之前像金子一樣好的孩子突然開始行為不端。

 

　　As with questions,using whom in the above examples is markedly formal.Most people would say or write the first example in one of these ways:

 

　　但這樣的表達存在問題，在上面句子使用whom的用法較為正式，大多數(shù)人將上面的第一個例句改寫成下面的方式之一：

 

　　The man who you met yesterday is coming to dinner.

 

　　The man that you met yesterday is coming to dinner.

 

　　The man you met yesterday is coming to dinner.

 

　　They would also probably move the preposition to the end of the clause in the third example:

 

　　在第三個例子中，句子結(jié)尾的介詞被省略。

 

　　However,if you are writing at work,at college or university,or for publication,it is acceptable and even advisable to use the more formal whom,especially in constructions with a preposition.

 

　　但是，如果你是在工作場合寫作，在學(xué)院、大學(xué)或者出版物，這些情況對whom的正式表達是可以接受，有時甚至是提倡的特別是在介詞結(jié)構(gòu)中，更提倡使用whom。

 

　　In one specific context whom seems obligatory:when it is preceded by quantifiers such as all of,both of,few of,many of,several of,etc.For example:

 

　　在具體的上下文中，當(dāng)whom位于下面這些短語之后時（all of，both of，many of，several of等等），whom帶有一種義不容辭的意味：

 

　　The Millennium Stadium accommodates 72,500 spectators,all of whom are seated.

 

　　加迪夫球場可容納72400名觀眾，且均提供座席。

 

　　Congratulations to all the winners,most of whom are definitely reading this blog!

 

　　祝賀所有的獲勝者，大部分的獲勝者都確定的閱讀這個博客

 

　　注意避免錯誤使用whom的情況：

 

　　×He is demanding￡5,000 from the elderly woman whom he claims has ruined his life.

 

　　他聲稱那個老婦人毀了他的生活，并向她要求5000英鎊

 

　　×Mr Reynolds is highly critical of journalists,whom he says just use labels to describe him.

 

　　雷諾茲先生非常嚴(yán)厲地批評了記者，他說記者僅僅用標(biāo)簽詞匯來描述他。

 

　　Who is correct in both examples.The mistake occurs because the reporting verbs claim and say have been inserted between the grammatical subjects[elderly woman,journalists]and the verbs they govern[has ruined,use].If you take them out,you can see that the sentence is wrong,because whom is being incorrectly used as the subject:

 

　　上面兩個例子中使用who都是正確的。由于上面句子中的轉(zhuǎn)述動詞claim和say放在了句子真正的主語[elderly woman,journalists]和主語對應(yīng)的動詞[has ruined,use]之間。如果將轉(zhuǎn)述動詞去掉，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)句子是錯誤的，因為whom充當(dāng)了句子的主語。

 

　　×He is demanding￡5,000 from the elderly woman whom has ruined his life.

 

　　×Mr Reynolds is highly critical of journalists,whom just use labels to describe him.

 

　　正確的表達應(yīng)該是這樣的:

 

　　√He is demanding￡5,000 from the elderly woman who has ruined his life.

 

　　√Mr Reynolds is highly critical of journalists,who just use labels to describe him.