Freaking Depressing
Posted by Belle on 27 Apr 2008 at 09:57 am | Tagged as: family
Is my daughter’s A recent blog article at her myspace site. She is a freshman at college.
It says:
It sucks to work really really hard on a rough draft of a paper, only to get it back and realize that I suck at the English language. I mean, seriously, when it comes to something as vague as prepositions, how am I supposed to know when to insert “regarding” in place of the word “of”? And I’ll never understand when to say “whom” instead of “who.” People who can write eloquently, I swear, they operate on a separate brain wave from me.
and mom answers:
I am not very fluent in English but I will take my shot at it because sometimes it takes a Filipino mother to answer your grammar questions.
When a sentence needs a subject, use WHO.
ex: Who will be coming?
I recognized the girl who was wearing red dress.
Whom, however, is an OBJECT PRONOUN. It is used as a direct object, indirect object, and object of the preposition.
ex: Whom did you give the money?- (direct object)
You wrote whom the letter?- (indirect object)
To whom did you give the flowers- (object of the preposition)
Anyway, if you really get confused about/regarding the two words, try this. Rewrite just the part of the sentence that contains who or whom. Instead of using who, use he. Instead of using whom, use him. See which sounds better. If he sounds better, use who otherwise, use whom.
example: The boy (who, whom) I sent the flowers was quite charming. Here, you would use whom, because it is used as indirect object. Indirect object answers questions “to whom” or “for whom.” To whom did i send the flowers?
ex: I gave you a $100. You is the indirect object because it explains to whom the money was given. $100 is the direct object because it explains what was given.
Regarding and of, however, are two different prepositions and should not be confused one from the other.
ex: I have a question regarding the topic.
Any questions regarding the rice crisis in the Philippines?
You wouldn’t say, “I have a question of the topic,” or “Any questions of the rice crisis in the Philippines?” Sounds awkward, right. Try to experiment with words and see which sounds better.
Daddy said, informally, you can say “Any questions about the rice crisis in the Philippines?” but “of” is incorrect preposition to use in those sentences. I think your professor is teaching you the formal way of writing.
Blogger friends, did i miss out anything?
Green Valley Park Sunset

This is one of those tricky grammar question that continues to confuse me either. I am not good in grammar myself, but I would use “whom” to an object of a verb or prep and “who” to the subject of a sentence.
So your answers are correct.
Hahaha I am not sure, I can never actually think off the bat which one to use though. But I will use “whom” or “who” when it’s appropriate.
Nice explanation, Belle. I’m not absolutely clear on when to use who or whom either. I just use the “which sounds right” rule. When all else fails, one can also just use a word processor’s grammar check. hehe
Hi kabayan,
As our “terror’ grammar teacher used to say, “if it sounds good, then it must be grammatically correct.”
Pls. tell you daughter that even experienced writers share the same confusion as hers.
Thanks for this explanation Belle. I also get confused with who and whom.
Good one Belle! In this world of text messaging, it never hurts to explain these things to our kids. It does get confusing sometimes. Great post!
First off: gorgeous photo!
English is very confusing!
impressive picture
beautiful picture belle!
frameworthy again.
I have taken liberty with rules of grammar but have stayed away from too blatant violations. Prepositions are really tricky. Your guidelines are a-okay to me. A doesn’t complain about the dilemma between using “her” or “she”? As in “I am taller than ______.” I know that the answer is “I am taller than she is” but I will never use it in ordinary conversation. haha
anna, my husband was both a technical writer and editor at a huge company one time and he agreed with what you just said re: “I am taller that she.”