Quiz created: 2023-10-23
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Who-Whom Quiz 6

Instructions: Answer the multiple choice questions, guessing if necessary; then click on the "Process Questions" button at the end of the quiz to see your score in the adjacent message box. The program will not reveal which questions you got wrong, only how many points you have. Go back and change your answers until you get them all right. (The message box will rejoice at that point and the page will change color to show it is tickled pink.)

Points to note: (1) Questions with only one possible answer are one point each. (2) Questions with one or more possible answers (represented by check boxes) give a point for each correct answer, but also subtract a point for each wrong answer! (3) The program will not attempt to score your efforts at all if you have not tried at least half of the questions. (4) This quiz is for your own use only. No record of your progress is kept or reported to anyone.

The objective (accusative) form “whom” is rapidly being displaced by the nominative form “who” is most sentences. It rarely leads to confusion, since English generally depends on word order rather than inflection to show case, but formal, especially written, English still makes the distinction. Although a subordinate clause as a whole can function as a subject or object or modifier, the structure of the subordinate clause itself, not how it is used, is what governs the cases of its constituent words . For example, “He gave brochures to whoever attended.” “Whoever” is the subject of “attended,” not the object of “to”; the object of “to” is the full clause “whoever attended.” Hence “whomever” would be inappropriate. “Ellen is the woman WHOM I met at work.” “Whom” is the object of “met”; the whole clause “whom I met at work” simply modifies “woman.” Some of the following writers got it right and some screwed it up. For each of the following quoted sentences select the “proper” form and the logic that makes it the correct choice. The abbreviation “SDUT” stands for San Diego Union-Tribune.
1. “She’s pretty receptive; I think she’ll approve of WHOEVER makes you happy.” (2019-02-21, “Mary Worth”)
The word should be
Whoever because it is the subject of “makes.” 
Whomever because it is the object of “of.” 
Whomever because it is the object of “approve.”  
No Answer
2. “She’s pretty receptive; I think she’ll approve of WHOMEVER you marry.”
Whoever because it is the subject of “makes.” 
Whomever because it is the object of “of.” 
Whoever because there is no such word as “whomever.” 
Whomever because it is the object of “marry.” 
No Answer
3. “The play’s conscience is sweetly played by Juliana Scheding as Sister James, a young and optimistic teacher WHO Sister Aloysius draws into her plan to remove Flynn.” (2023-10-04-SDUT, p. B2)
The word should be
who because it is the subject of the verb “draws. 
who because it is apposition with “teacher.” 
whom because it is in apposition with “Juliana Scheding,” the object of “by.” 
whom because it is the object of the verb “draws.” 
No Answer
4. “My retort to Giullani and WHOMEVER is left of the Trump loyalists: Perhaps not impeaching the president would foment a revolt by the other two-thirds of America who don’t approve of this president.” (2018-08-31-SDUT-B6, a letter to the editor).
The word should be
Whoever because it is the subject of “is left.” 
Whoever because there is no such word as “whomever.” 
Whomever because it is the object of “to.” 
Whomever because it is the object of “retort.” 
No Answer
5. “The city plans to argue that the state ruling ignored the free speech rights of former Mayor Jerry Sanders, WHOM the court said violated state collective bargaining law by not negotiating with labor unions before pursuing the personnel measure which was called Proposition B.” (2018-10-12-SDUT-A1)
The word should be
Who because it is the subject of “violated.” 
Whom because it must agree with “Sanders,” the object of “rights of.” 
Whom because it is the object of “said.” 
No Answer
6. “The battle to succeed [Angela Merkel] is likely to become a referendum on her reign, with WHOEVER emerges atop the CDU becoming the instant favorite to take over as [German] chancellor.” (2018-10-30-SDUT-A3)
The word should be
Whoever because it is the subject of “emerges.” 
Whoever because it is the subject of “becoming.” 
Whomever because it is the object of “with.” 
Whomever because it is the object of “emerges.” 
No Answer
7. “He regularly criticizes the tech giants, WHOM he argues are censoring his and his followers’ views.” (2019-09-21-NYT-Online)
The word should be:
Who because it is the subject of “are censoring.” 
Whom because it is the object of “argues.” 
Whom because it is in apposition with “tech giants,” the direct object of “criticizes.” 
No Answer
8. “Unlike the previous generation, WHOM had fought for ‘changing the system,’ the silent generation were about working within the system.” (2020-04-11, Wikipedia)
The word should be
Who because it is in apposition with “generation.” 
Who because it is the subject of “had fought.” 
Whom because it is in apposition with “generation.” 
Whom because it is part of a subordinate clause modifying “silent generation.” 
No Answer
9. “The city state was led by a powerful king and queen WHO texts suggest jointly ruled the realm.” (Archaeology Nov/Dec, 2023, p. 42).
The word should be
who because it is the subject of “ruled.” 
who because it is the subject of “suggests.” 
who to agree with the plural “king and queen.” 
who because the “a” before “powerful” makes “king and queen” into a single entity. 
whom because it is the object of “suggest.” 
whom to agree with “king and queen,” the object of the very “led.” 
No Answer

      Points out of 9:

Awesomeness
Score
Awesomeness Score: The following awesomeness score is a measure of how much guessing you did to get all items right. It is 100 if you got all questions right when you clicked the process button for the first time. It gets proportionately lower if it took more clicks, until it hits 0 if your clicks exceeded the number of questions.



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This consummately cool, pedagogically compelling, self-correcting,
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