Grammatical Question

[MagicNakor]

Although if you tend to consistently speak with the "archaic" forms, you end up sounding like a stuffed shirt.

In short, whom is used for a direct or indirect object or for the object of a prepostion, and who is used as a nominative pronoun (such as I or he).

"To whom it may concern" is still widely used in formal letters, but if you ask your mailman "To whom did you give the letter?" you may be looked at strangely.

The same rules apply for whoever and whomever.

[clocker]

You would be looked at askance by whom, prithee tell kind dude.

[MagicNakor]

You're combining time periods!

Noooooo!

[Skweeky]

Thank you clocker for you support. My reason for wanting to learn english is simple; I want to be able to speak at least one other language as well as my own.
I think I can say that my Dutch is very good, I always make sure to use the proper grammar constructions and speak standard language, not 'in between language' or dialect. I dislike it when I hear people making very common mistakes and I absolutely despise it when they make spelling mistakes...

I used to think it was important to speak as many languages as possible, to know a bit about each, but I have changed my view on that. English is a language widely spread and almost everyone uses or understands it, but I think 'Engrish' is spoken too much these days.

I speak French well enough, I've worked in Brussels for a while,so the French I speak is the 'common' French, and not the standard French. I've been taught German in highschool, but it's not exactly one of my favourite languages



It's only the first year I study Germanic languages, but I've found it to be what I really like so I'll probably be bugging all of you with these questions as soon as the exams approach

Thanks for all the replies, I've learnt a thing or two and that's always a good thing

Greets,
Sonja
xxx

[clocker]

Somewhat off topic....

When I lived in Atlanta I was employed as a graphic artist at a shop that specialized in convention graphics. We did all sorts of stuff and it was fun, but the hours were ridiculous. The man who owned the business was an expatriot Russian.

He was quite a hustler and somehow managed to land a commission from Coca-Cola. We were to design/produce a booth that was going to a trade show in Moscow ( this was back in 81-82) and would be a real steppingstone for Coke to break into the Russian market.

We had to order special fonts for our graphics computers (Cryllic) and of course none of us could properly proofread the finished product. The owner (who had also done the translations) proofread and approved the package.

Several weeks later a enraged Coca-Cola rep appears and rips the owner a new asshole. Turns out "M"s (the owner) grammar and spelling were atrocious and the booth appeared to the Russian business leaders as though it had been done by peasants. Riddled with spelling errors and slang terms it was hardly the impression that Coke wanted to make.

I think that Coke managed to overcome the poor first impression that they made, but we certainly never got another job from them....