Dear people-who-run-Twitter, whom to follow, whom

https://twitter.com/VictoriaCoren/status/20509320497

by ralph • 16 years ago

75 44 16 years ago

ralph5• 16 years ago

Victoria Coren's had an interesting career. Writer, TV presenter, including _Balderdash and Piffle_ connected to the Oxford English Dictionary, poker player, and porn film maker, though just the once. It's nice to see see someone well known, in the UK at least, show their pedant side. Hopefully, her appearance on news.yc will make twitter take note. :-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Coren

Raphael• 16 years ago

While you're at it, put "following" before the number to distinguish it better from "followers".

m0nty3• 16 years ago

To come back with a predictable response: everyone says "who" even if they mean "whom". Using "whom", even if it is grammatically correct, is perceived to be wrong in most conversational situations, or other informal situations like Twitter.

Anyway, the quick guide: if you would say "him/her", use "whom", and if you would say "he/she", use "who".

"Who is that?" ... "He is the programmer."

"To whom is the message addressed?" ... "It is addressed to him."

He -> Who / Him -> Whom

But who wouldn't say "Who is it addressed to?" You'd sound like the posh bloke from an Ealing Comedy if you used "whom" all the time.

ralph5• 16 years ago

You might sound like Inspector Morse; he was repeatedly correcting Lewis. Here in England, "everyone" doesn't say "who" when they mean "whom".

m0nty3• 16 years ago

What, that Ralph Corderoy, one-time of the PCG? You should be able to work out who I am from my username ;)

Anyway, I can't remember when I last heard someone use "whom" outside of slightly cheesy television series like Morse...

electromagnetic2• 16 years ago

I've always used whom, but now I live in Canada I find myself missing it more often than I did in England. Perhaps it's just that I was taught when to use who and whom.

cabalamat• 16 years ago

The vast majority do, except when the word is preceded by a preposition. E,g:

"Who is it addressed to?" versus "To whom is it addressed?"

jjcm• 16 years ago

Often times proper grammar isn't the best approach from a marketing standpoint. Look at apple's use of, "the funnest _ yet" slogans that they used for a while. Catering to the most commonly used vernacular is generally a better strategy from a marketing perspective.

I'm going out on a limb here, but my bet is that the mistake is on purpose.

electromagnetic2• 16 years ago

Depending on your target demographic obviously. If you're aiming for the general market then you're absolutely right, you'll hit more birds with your stones if you talk to people on their level. However, if you're aiming college grads or PhD grads, you're probably going to annoy them if you're letting grammatical errors enter your marketing.

I've closed BBC news articles when there's been a grammatical mistake in the first paragraph. I didn't pay my License Fee in the UK for them to abuse it with bad news.

waqf3• 16 years ago

I have to say that the BBC news has more spelling and grammar errors per thousand words than most blogs I read.

... now let me try desperately to bring this back on topic by saying that I think the thread above blaming Britain for grammatical prescriptivism is way off. Strunk and White popularized some prescriptions unknown in the UK (such as not using "which" in the role of "that") and in my thoroughly anecdotal experience Americans spell [by the conventions of the country they're in] significantly better than Brits do.

ralph5• 16 years ago

Maybe Twitter should consider changing to "Whom to follow" as the quirkiness would stand out to those unfamiliar with "whom". May help partially offset the slight staidness.

alxp• 16 years ago

Think different(ly).

petercooper• 16 years ago

William Safire said it best:

"The best rule for dealing with who vs. whom is this: Whenever whom is required, recast the sentence. This keeps a huge section of the hard disk of your mind available for baseball averages."

Put this in the "most people don't care" bin along with the subjunctive mood, which I see intelligent people failing to use more often than not.

Tyrannosaurs• 16 years ago

Dear people-who-run-Twitter, whom to follow, whom

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