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Post by hiddenjewel on Apr 6, 2009 9:27:23 GMT -5
I cannot determine if who or whom needs to be used in this sentence. Nor can I figure out how to diagram it so I can tell if it being used as a nominative or objective case. Can you please help me? I suspect it is whom because "God created them to be whom" but I don't know.
"But as I began reading this book I was blessed to see an overriding theme of helping students become who God created them to be."
Or would it be better to say it as below. I'm concerned about using the singular "man" and "woman" along with "them".
"But as I began reading this book I was blessed to see an overriding theme of helping students become the man or woman God created them to be."
Thanks so much.
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Post by Carolyn on Apr 6, 2009 13:47:24 GMT -5
The first place to start here is with the verb 'become'. Is it a transitive or intransitive verb, used with this meaning? The dictionary says it's intransitive ... so in the form X becomes Y, both X and Y would be in the same case. 'becomes' functions as a linking verb.
(Carolyn goes on a slight grammatical bunny trail, deletes it, and resumes)
'Becomes' is linking 'students' to 'who(m)' God created them to be." And so, 'who' needs to be plural, like students, the same gender as students, but have the case of whatever it is in the relative clause. God created them to be who(m). Again 'to be' is linking 'them' (objective) to 'who(m)' ... and so it must be 'whom'. The pronoun on one side of a linking expression must be in the same case as what it is being linked to.
Descriptive English Grammar discusses this on 'Possible Mistakes in Connection with the Use of Infinitives'. The example they give is "We thought the intruder to be him (not 'he')."
You are right to be concerned about the mixing of man/woman/them. You could say 'each student become the man God created him to be' or 'the person God created him to be' ... but whatever comes after 'become' should be in the same number as the pronoun used before 'to be.'
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Post by hiddenjewel on Apr 6, 2009 14:50:54 GMT -5
Thank you very much. I need to print this out and chew on it for a bit.
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