I very often get asked the question, ‘when do we use whom, and what’s the difference between who and whom?
The first thing I should say is that English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy – the bible of grammar for English learners makes no reference at all to whom as a question word. Collins Cobuild Intermediate Grammar states that, “in formal English, ‘whom’ is used as the object of verb or preposition”. So we understand that ‘whom’ is formal, and isn’t used very much at all in conversational English.
The explanation given is not clear, though, so let’s look at a few examples:
Normal, informal English: who did you see? (qui as-tu vu?)
Affected, formal English: whom did you see?
In both of these questions the subject is ‘you’ and the object is the question word, who or whom.
Note that if the question word is the subject, there is no auxiliary, and we never use ‘whom’:
Who saw you? (qui t’as vu?)
If a preposition is used, it is always in front of ‘whom’:
informal: who did you have lunch with? (t’as déjeuné avec qui?)
formal : With whom did you have lunch?
As relative pronouns
‘who’ and ‘whom’ are also relative pronouns. A relative clause is part of a sentence that tells us which person or thing the speaker is talking about. Example:
The man who lives next door – l’homme qui habite à coté
The man who I met yesterday – l’homme que j’ai recontré hier
It is possible to say ‘the man whom I met yesterday’ because it is the object of the verb (I met).
Murphy writes in his chapter on relative pronouns, and this is very important:
“but we do not often use whom. In spoken English we usually prefer who or that, or nothing.”
Nothing? Yes, nothing:
the man I met yesterday (l’homme que j’ai recontré hier)
Moral: Don’t use whom! You don’t need it! Know that it exists in case you hear it or read it, but avoid using it wherever possible.
En France (pas au Quebec) il est tendance à utiliser les mots anglais terminant avec “-ing”. Certains de ces mots sont des parfaits ‘bons amis’, mais d’autres laisseraient un anglophone un peu perdu!
Les bons amis:
marketing
shopping : (mais to do the shopping : faire des courses (alimentaires).
briefing
surfing
cocooning
Les mots qui n’ont pas tout à fait le même sens en anglais:
Il s’agit de ce qu’on appelle ‘interference’ – vous essayez d’utiliser les mots et les structures français pour former des phrases en anglais. Mais ce ne marche pas toujours! Ci-dessus vous avez quelques fautes qui sont assez typiques pour un francophone et ci-dessous les phrases en français pour comparer:
ça fait longtemps que je t’ai pas vu
j’ai fait un bon voyage à Londres
mon chef est symphathique
mon fils a dix ans
Veux-tu que je t’aide?
je ne suis pas d’accord
ta femme est française?
Ils m’ont dit que ce n’est pas bon
tu viens avec nous ce soir?
tu peux me dire où sont les toilettes?
Les voici:
1 one
2 two
3 three
4 four
5 five
6 six
7 seven
8 eight
9 nine
10 ten
11 eleven
12 twelve
13 thirteen
14 fourteen
15 fifteen
16 sixteen
17 seventeen
18 eighteen
19 nineteen
20 twenty
21 twenty-one
30 thirty
40 forty
50 fifty
60 sixty
70 seventy
80 eighty
90 ninety
100 one hundred (or a hundred)
200 two hundred
250 two hundred fifty (or two hundred and fifty)
1000 one thousand
10000 ten thousand
100000 one hundred thousand
1000000 one million
1000000000 one billion
Maintenant, apprenez-les avec les flashcards: mettez le son, décochez ‘both sides’ et cochez ‘French first’
Ecoutez attentivement. Choisissez le mot que vous croyez avoir entendu. Est-ce que le “o” comme “go” ou le “or” comme “door”? Appuyez sur pause si la vidéo va trop vite!
Ecoutez attentivement afin de trouver les mots manquants dans la transcription:
Hey _________, it’s me again. How are you ________ today? Are you feeling good? What have you got_______ for today? I ask a lot of questions, don’t I? Asking questions is a good way to show people that you are ________ in them. You just have to be _________ not to be too nosey. In a lot of countries, people don’t like talking about religion or politics or how much money they ________. It’s not _________ to ask those kind of questions. When you ask somebody a question, make sure that you show them that you are listening. You do this by saying things like, yeah, OK, really? right, uhuh. Look at the person while they are talking and nod your head from time to time.
nosey : (trop) curieux
nod : hocher la tête
réponses ci-dessous:
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*Hey there, it’s me again. How are you doing today? Are you feeling good? What have you got planned for today? I ask a lot of questions, don’t I? Asking questions is a good way to show people that you are interested in them. You just have to be careful not to be too nosey. In a lot of countries, people don’t like talking about religion or politics or how much money they earn. It’s not polite to ask those kind of questions. When you ask somebody a question, make sure that you show them that you are listening. You do this by saying things like, yeah, OK, really? right, uhum. Look at the person while they are talking and nod your head from time to time.
Cliquez sur le bouton ‘enable sound’ afin de les écouter. Notez aussi que la prononciation de ‘Z’ et l’américaine: “zee”. En Grande Brétagne, on dit “zed” comme en français.
Categories: grammaire | 
Tags: who, whom | 
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