Who/Whom Confusion and a Witch

An old witch living in the woods cursed me as a child.  The woman dressed in black stepped from her dilapidated cabin and waved her crooked staff.  “For playing in my forest, you shall forever confuse the words “who” and “whom” in complex sentence structures.”

A friendly grammarian-sage named David Bender broke the curse years later with some magic words passed to him from a council of elders, “Sometimes a simple trick to see if you have it right or wrong is to see how that particular clause would read if you were to replace who with he/she or replace whom with him/her.”

I like this story better than saying I couldn’t figure out a basic rule of grammar until a friend showed me a way around it, but it seems I’m not the only one who struggles with who/whom case confusion.

“What about Strunk and White?” you ask.  Strunk and White fixes everything writing, except when it doesn’t. According to the third edition, ”When who introduces a subordinate clause, its case depends on its function in that clause.”  Seems pretty simple for simple sentence structures, but what about the complex? Additionally, more than a few grammarians argue through discussion boards the accuracy/helpfulness of Strunk and White— so much for Dr. Google.  (Click here to fall into the Strunk and White who/whom rabbit hole debate: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/301864/the-who-whom-examples-in-strunk-and-whites-elements-of-grammar.)

When Strunk and White fails, we rely upon trickery.  This is an example from the story Dave Bender read for me:

She stopped, hopped out, and moved another car in the same way calling, “What about now?” to Patches whom stood holding a large sheet of paper at the ride operator’s podium.

Here is what I took from Dave’s feedback.  The “whom” would seem correct at first glance, since the character’s name “Patches” looks like the object of the overall sentence (“she” was calling to “Patches”), but “Patches” serves as the subject of the subordinate clause. Replacing the incorrect “whom” with “him” and reading it aloud sounds strange and points to this error. Using “he” is more kind to the ear and hints at the subjective function of “Patches.”

This is another example from the same story:

He called to Harry who leaned on a cinderblock and steel-plated support post still trying to collect himself from his ordeal, “Sir, could you please cut the power to the bumper cars?”

“Harry” serves as the object of the first clause, but “Harry” becomes the subject of the next clause needing the subjective “who.”  When read aloud, “he” sounds correct, but “him” sounds strange.

So, if during your youth you happened to have strayed into the same witch’s forest as I and now suffer her curse, I am hopeful this little trick can help free you.