Re: Marshmallows

Bob Cunningham wrote:
On Sat, 25 Oct 2008 06:30:47 +0800, Robert Bannister
<robban1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I would find that hard to follow in the case where "who(m)" comes directly after a preposition. Yes, it is true it is possible to rephrase, but I don't believe such sentences are sufficiently awkward or distasteful to make it necessary.

If we want to seem affected and pedantic and if we want to distract
attention from what we're saying to how we're saying it, we can say
"To whom should I give it?"

If we want to talk like* normal people talk, we can say "Who should I
give it to?"

I totally agree, but sometimes, in a complex sentence, it does work out neater or easier to use that kind of phrasing. Few of us, I imagine, actually use complex sentences in speech, but occasionally one gets trapped into one, and when this happens I find it very difficult to get my tongue round "to who". I wish I could think of a convincing example, but as I said, this situation does not arise very often.

--
Rob Bannister
.

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