Give this magic hammer to _____ is the most worthy.
a. whomever (object of the preposition to)
b. whoever (subject of the clause whoever is the most worthy)
Answer (highlight to see):
[The answer is (b). The object of the preposition to is the entire noun clause. A clause has to have a subject, so whoever works here because it's in the nominative—i.e., subjective—case. Whomever, meanwhile, is in the dative (indirect-object) case.]
Whatever.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I've screwed this up recently or not. I tend to avoid using whomever and whoever whenever possible because I was never sure which was correct. I have my answer now, but will I remember?
I guess you can avoid the issue just by writing "the one who."
ReplyDelete