There’s an ongoing debate in English about when you should use who and when to use whom.According to the rules of formal grammar,who should be used in the subject position in a sentence,while whom should be used in the object position,and also after a preposition.

 

　　在英語(yǔ)中，對(duì)于何時(shí)用who何時(shí)用whom的問(wèn)題，一直有持續(xù)的討論。依據(jù)正式語(yǔ)法中的規(guī)則，who替代句子中主語(yǔ)的位置，whom替代句子中賓語(yǔ)的位置，也可用于介詞后。

 

　　用于問(wèn)句當(dāng)中：

 

　　Who made this decision?[here,who is the subject of the sentence]

 

　　誰(shuí)做的這個(gè)決定？[who在句子中當(dāng)主語(yǔ)]

 

　　Whom do you think we should support?[here,whom is the object of support]

 

　　你認(rèn)為我們?cè)撝С终l(shuí)？[whom充當(dāng)support的賓語(yǔ)]

 

　　To whom do you wish to speak?[here,whom is following the preposition to]

 

　　你希望和誰(shuí)講話(huà)？[whom做介詞to的賓語(yǔ)]

 

　　In practice,most people never use whom like this in speech because it sounds extremely formal.They don't use whom at all,and instead use who in all contexts,i.e.:

 

　　實(shí)際上，因?yàn)閣hom的表達(dá)太正式，大多數(shù)人在講話(huà)中并不使用whom。在所有的場(chǎng)合中都使用who代替，比如：

 

　　Who do you think we should support?

 

　　你認(rèn)為我們?cè)撝С终l(shuí)？

 

　　Who do you wish to speak to?

 

　　你認(rèn)為我們?cè)撝С终l(shuí)？

 

　　作為關(guān)系代詞

 

　　Who and whom are also relative pronouns,used to link one clause to another.For example:

 

　　Who和whom也都也作為關(guān)系代詞，用于連接兩個(gè)子句。比如：

 

　　The man whom you met yesterday is coming to dinner.

 

　　你昨天見(jiàn)到的人即將來(lái)吃飯。

 

　　The children,who had been as good as gold,then suddenly started misbehaving.

 

　　這些孩子，之前像金子一樣好的孩子突然開(kāi)始行為不端。

 

　　As with questions,using whom in the above examples is markedly formal.Most people would say or write the first example in one of these ways:

 

　　但這樣的表達(dá)存在問(wèn)題，在上面句子使用whom的用法較為正式，大多數(shù)人將上面的第一個(gè)例句改寫(xiě)成下面的方式之一：

 

　　The man who you met yesterday is coming to dinner.

 

　　The man that you met yesterday is coming to dinner.

 

　　The man you met yesterday is coming to dinner.

 

　　They would also probably move the preposition to the end of the clause in the third example:

 

　　在第三個(gè)例子中，句子結(jié)尾的介詞被省略。

 

　　However,if you are writing at work,at college or university,or for publication,it is acceptable and even advisable to use the more formal whom,especially in constructions with a preposition.

 

　　但是，如果你是在工作場(chǎng)合寫(xiě)作，在學(xué)院、大學(xué)或者出版物，這些情況對(duì)whom的正式表達(dá)是可以接受，有時(shí)甚至是提倡的特別是在介詞結(jié)構(gòu)中，更提倡使用whom。

 

　　In one specific context whom seems obligatory:when it is preceded by quantifiers such as all of,both of,few of,many of,several of,etc.For example:

 

　　在具體的上下文中，當(dāng)whom位于下面這些短語(yǔ)之后時(shí)（all of，both of，many of，several of等等），whom帶有一種義不容辭的意味：

 

　　The Millennium Stadium accommodates 72,500 spectators,all of whom are seated.

 

　　加迪夫球場(chǎng)可容納72400名觀眾，且均提供座席。

 

　　Congratulations to all the winners,most of whom are definitely reading this blog!

 

　　祝賀所有的獲勝者，大部分的獲勝者都確定的閱讀這個(gè)博客

 

　　注意避免錯(cuò)誤使用whom的情況：

 

　　×He is demanding￡5,000 from the elderly woman whom he claims has ruined his life.

 

　　他聲稱(chēng)那個(gè)老婦人毀了他的生活，并向她要求5000英鎊

 

　　×Mr Reynolds is highly critical of journalists,whom he says just use labels to describe him.

 

　　雷諾茲先生非常嚴(yán)厲地批評(píng)了記者，他說(shuō)記者僅僅用標(biāo)簽詞匯來(lái)描述他。

 

　　Who is correct in both examples.The mistake occurs because the reporting verbs claim and say have been inserted between the grammatical subjects[elderly woman,journalists]and the verbs they govern[has ruined,use].If you take them out,you can see that the sentence is wrong,because whom is being incorrectly used as the subject:

 

　　上面兩個(gè)例子中使用who都是正確的。由于上面句子中的轉(zhuǎn)述動(dòng)詞claim和say放在了句子真正的主語(yǔ)[elderly woman,journalists]和主語(yǔ)對(duì)應(yīng)的動(dòng)詞[has ruined,use]之間。如果將轉(zhuǎn)述動(dòng)詞去掉，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)句子是錯(cuò)誤的，因?yàn)閣hom充當(dāng)了句子的主語(yǔ)。

 

　　×He is demanding￡5,000 from the elderly woman whom has ruined his life.

 

　　×Mr Reynolds is highly critical of journalists,whom just use labels to describe him.

 

　　正確的表達(dá)應(yīng)該是這樣的:

 

　　√He is demanding￡5,000 from the elderly woman who has ruined his life.

 

　　√Mr Reynolds is highly critical of journalists,who just use labels to describe him.