Since I’m always the one posting blogs about weird grammar and dictionary sites, people may be under the impression that I’m some sort of hard-ass when it comes to the laws of word usage. In truth, I am not (although I may laugh at people quietly and smear red ink all over their copy, I’m hardly ever mean about it to their faces–maybe it’s because I know I’m susceptible to the same missteps). But there is someone at the Alibi offices who does fall under that category: our in-house grammar guru, “Jerry.” Jerry has mastered the art of not-so-subtle constructive criticism. If you send an e-mail that, let’s say, employs the wrong verb tense or mistakenly uses a misplaced modifier, he’ll let you know. Take, for example, the subject line of this e-mail sent out yesterday by an Alibi staffer: "whomever has the front printer on manual feed" The body of the e-mail is irrelevant, what’s interesting (and educational) is Jerry’s response, sent to "all":"btw, the rules are very, very confusing, but it should be ‘whoever’ not ‘whomever’you can generally use this rule: replace whoever with ‘he’ and whomever with ‘him’if the sentence breaks down, use the other onemore grammar hell here:www.celebrityenglish.com"In the end, we should thank Jerry. Besides providing us with a seriously entertaining way to learn grammar (that website is amazing), he’s made sure that I always proofread my e-mails.
Grammaticality
2 min read
