What’s the difference between who, who’s whose and whom? That’s what you’ll learn in this episode of…….Aprender Ingles con Reza y Craig

Reza is ‘on top of the world’ and ‘as fit as a fiddle’.

Audio Feedback Janete Hernandez from Mexico
I love your accent too, Janete!

Audio feedback from Ana from Mexico (so many audio messages from Mexico – Thank you! Please keep sending your voice messages. You will hear them eventually!)

Who Whose Who’s and Whom

To understand how to use ‘who’, ‘whom’ and ‘whose’ you first have to understand the difference between subjects, objects and possessives. 

The subject does the action:
She works in a cafe.
He likes cooking.
They bought a new car.

The object receives the action:
Everyone likes him.
I don’t know her.
They didn’t speak to us.

Possessives tell us the person something belongs to:
His new mobile phone is really expensive.
I like his sunglasses, not hers.
We’re selling our flat.

‘Who’ can be a subject pronoun like ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘they’ or object pronoun like ‘him’, ‘her’ and ‘us’.
We can use ‘who’ to ask which person did an action or which person is in a certain state (subject):
Who wrote the email?
Who is that girl over there?
Who is getting the drinks?

We can also use ‘who’ to ask which person received an action (object):
Who are you going to invite to the wedding?
Who did you meet last night?
Who has she chosen to go with?

‘Whom’ is an object pronoun like ‘him’, ‘her’ and ‘us’ used with formal English. We use ‘whom’ to ask which person received an action. It isn’t common to use whom. Most native speakers use ‘who’ instead.
Who(m) are you going to invite to the wedding?
Who(m) did you meet last night?
Who(m) are they going to choose to manage Arsenal?

‘Whom’ MUST go after a preposition, NOT ‘who’, with formal English:
The lady with whom Reza was dancing was the Marquise (Marquesa)
‘For whom the bells toll’ is Hemingway’s famous novel set in the Spanish Civil War.
‘To whom it may concern’ is typical at the top of a reference.

When the pronoun and preposition are separated and/or the pronoun comes first, ‘who’ MUST be used, NOT ‘whom’:
The woman who Reza was dancing with must have been a bit tipsy! (tipsy-un poquito bebida)
Who did they sell their old car to yesterday?
Young boy: “Can I go to the cinema tonight, mum?”
Mother: “Who with?”
‘Whose’ can be a possessive adjective, like ‘her’ and ‘our’, or possessive pronoun, like ‘hers’’ or ‘ours’ . We use ‘whose’ to find out which person something belongs to.
Whose glass is this?
Whose is this jacket?
I see a book on my chair. Whose is it?
Whose are these?

Don’t confuse whose and who’s = who is. They’re pronounced the same:
Who’s (= Who is) that ringing the doorbell?
That’s the person who’s(= who is) coming with me to Brian’s party.

Improve your speaking with an italki teacher

My Dear friends:
This is Edgar Ubaldo from Mexico again. – Question about The Mexican Wall 

According to Longman – “TOEFL Preparation Course”, it is possible to use inversion (V + S) with negative expressions such as: never, hardly ever, etc.

Because of that, and following my previous message, I wrote never shall we pa y for that wall. Nevertheless, I won’t use this expression in an English Test or a normal conversation. Is this okay? or should I not use inversion in cases like this?

Additionally, in a book I’m reading “A Tale of Two Cities”, there are some questions that don’t follow the right word order:

“There are two other points on which I am anxious to be instructed. I may go on?”
“You are sure that he is not under too great a strain?”
“It would show itself in some renewal of this disorder?”

I believe that it was written like that on purpose, but I don’t know if there are any difference in meaning or intention.

And finally friends, especially Reza, I would like to know the grammar behind this expression (taken from the same book):

“He approached his second and last point. He felt it to be the most difficult of all; but, remembering his old Sunday morning conversation with Miss Pross, and remembering what he had seen in the last nine days, he knew that he must face it”

Why is it Past Simple + Modal in present to talk about something that happened in the past?.
I constantly try to express the same and said: I knew I should have faced it or something like that.

(Reza’s explanation:”he knew that he had to face it” is the typical, everyday way to say it in modern English, because ‘had to’ is the past of ‘must’.
However, it’s quite common to use ‘must’ instead of ‘had to’, even though it’s the past (“he knew that he must face it”), to make the story sound more lively and real,
as if it were happening now, in the present, especially in storytelling/literature.)

Audio feedback from Evelin Fernandez – advice for TOEFL test – speaking

20 minutes – 6 questions
The first two are about familiar topics, and the other four are about short readings, lectures, and conversations.
You will have a short amount of time after you read each question to prepare your response. Then you will be given a short amount of time to speak into a microphone.
You will be evaluated on “delivery, language use and topic development”.

We spoke about the TOEFL and IELTS test in episode 68

TOP TIPS FOR TOEFL

– time yourself
– take notes (bullet points)
– breath deeply
– practise speaking in noisy places and recording yourself
– image you are speaking to a good friend as you speak into the microphone
…and now it’s your turn to practise your English. Do you have a question for us or an idea for a future episode?
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We want to thank Arminda from Madrid for continuing to transcribe full transcriptions.
There are now full transcriptions for episodes 131, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139 and 140.

On next week’s episode: Farming and agriculture

The music in this podcast is by Pitx. The track is called ‘See You Later’