who/whom

[Tone]

Help, please.

I've got myself confused over this one. When I try to analyze it I can get both answers.

We take the statement:
"Someone will make a mistake. It's just a matter of who will make it."

But then we elide, and get:
"Someone will make a mistake. It's just a matter of who/whom."

So which is it, "who" or "whom". And why?

Tone

[Paul Doherty]

"Who" for the first, "whom" for the second.

You're confusing yourself with the elision. Why should they be the same? Taking a different example: "It's a question of whether it will be I who should make it" presents the same problem. "I" can be the subject of its own little clause "I who should make it", or the object of "it will be" (in which case we'd make it "me").

So in the original we are torn between "I" and "me" (and a lot of us would go for "me") -- once you elide it to "It's a question of whether it will be I" the balance is tipped and we prefer "It's a question of whether it will be me".

[Tone]

>You're confusing yourself with the elision. Why should they be the same?<

Precisely.

Tone