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In the given sentence,"There’s Mr. Som, who they say is the best singer in the country" is "who" is the correct word to be used or "whom"

Shashi
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    @MattЭллен Yes, but this particular example is ambiguous. Who appears to refers to the object of they say (and should therefore be whom) but re-arranging the sentence makes "They say he is the best singer" (so it's who). I'm sure this sort of conundrum has appeared here before, but it's not the question you have nominated and I can't find the right one. – Andrew Leach Oct 03 '13 at 11:01
  • @Andrew: Not to mention that the sentence could be punctuated "There’s Mr. Som, who, they say, is the best singer", in which case the answer is clearly "who". – Peter Shor Oct 03 '13 at 11:58
  • This question appears to be off-topic because it is based on a misconceived issue -- there's no ambiguity -- NARQ. – Kris Oct 03 '13 at 12:07
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    @Andrew I'll give you that this is a garden-path sentence, but other than that that's clutching at straws. Once you arrive at is, it becomes clear that who clearly isn't the object of they say here. For that, the sentence would have to be "There's Mr. Som whom they say to be". The older question covers this just fine. "Whom is" is never grammatical. The "they say" is a red herring. – RegDwigнt Oct 03 '13 at 12:13

2 Answers2

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Geoffrey Pullum has given this question his full consideration on Language Log.

Here’s his conclusion:

It's the neatest case I know of in which a dispute about what's correct turns out to have no possible resolution, because there are two perfectly defensible rules that have slightly different consequences, and the evidence from literature says that different writers make different choices of rule.

Barrie England
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Use the he/him method to decide which word is correct.

he = who
him = whom

Who/Whom wrote the letter?

He wrote the letter. Therefore, who is correct.

For who/whom should I vote?

Should I vote for him? Therefore, whom is correct.

We all know who/whom pulled that prank.

This sentence contains two clauses: We all know and who/whom pulled that prank.

We are interested in the second clause because it contains the who/whom. He pulled that prank. Therefore, who is correct. (Are you starting to sound like a hooting owl yet?)

We want to know on who/whom the prank was pulled.

This sentence contains two clauses: We want to know and the prank was pulled on who/whom. Again, we are interested in the second clause because it contains the who/whom. The prank was pulled on him. Therefore, whom is correct.

Now...

Consider the following sentence:

Who do you consider the best composer?

Should it be who or whom?

Figure it out by turning the sentence around and replacing the who or whom with he or him. If he is wrong, so is who. If him is wrong, so is whom.

Do you consider him the best composer?
*Do you consider he the best composer?

Since him is correct, use whom. Whom do you consider the best composer?

It was Corelli, you’ll find, who composed that piece.

Turning the sentence around, which is correct?

He composed that piece.
*Him composed that piece.

Since he is correct, use who in the sentence.

Andrew Leach
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