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Random English exercise for myself because I like words:

  • Those who hold the plant will die.

  • Those whom hold the plant will die.

Which sentence is grammatically correct?

Opinion:

It is the first sentence because it sounds better... but who 'm I to judge? (Sorry for the pun :P)

I tried to structure the two sentences differently like the following, and see which sounded better:

  • He who holds the plant will die.
  • Him who holds the plant wil die.

From what I can tell, "he" refers to "who" and "him" refers to "whom". In my opinion, these both sound ok... but when I change "he" to "she" and "him" to "her", the second sentence sounds awful:

  • Her who holds the plant will die. (yikes!)

So I believe the first sentence most above is correct (i.e. the one with "who" as opposed to "whom").

Made-up word:

Enshadow:

verb
1. envelop in shadow (e.g. The moon will enshadow us once the eclipse begins.)
2. hide something discreetly (e.g. We thought he was honest, but the truth was enshadowed.)

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Mr Pie
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    (a) Don't ever use whom. You never need it. (2) enshadow is a perfectly normal English verb; you may have made it up, but so did a lot of other people before you. – John Lawler Feb 03 '19 at 19:01
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    The person performing an action is always he, she, who. If the action is done to them it's him, her, whom. As @JohnLawler says, some people now consider using 'whom' to be old-fashioned and pedantic. – Kate Bunting Feb 04 '19 at 09:43
  • @JohnLawler really??? Ah well... I will make up another word then... thanks for telling me – Mr Pie Feb 06 '19 at 22:21
  • @KateBunting Thank you! I see I kind of answered my own question, then, hahah, but at least you confirmed it :) – Mr Pie Feb 06 '19 at 22:22

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