Born in a Liberian village, English was
not my first language. My mother tongue is Bassa, one of sixteen
Liberian languages. (Yes, languages, not dialects.) I was about ten
years old before I began learning how to speak English. So tough was
the experience that the first time someone asked me, "What is your
name?" I replied, "Ni sey bada", which means, "It didn't
rain." The Bassa word "ni" (rain) sounds like the English word
"name", so I really thought the person was asking whether or not
it had rained that day. Everyone in the room just fell off laughing
at the country boy who didn't know English.
So, who am I to grade anyone's English
grammar skill, especially that of a native-born Caucasian American?
Answer? Because I respect the English language, or any language for
that matter.
Here's the story. We're at work. Our
team leader, who is on the phone with someone, asks, "What is the
English rule for 'whoever' and 'whomever'? Is it 'Let whoever is...or
let whomever is...?"
After a brief pause, a co-worker
replies, "One is singular, and the other is plural. If you're
addressing one person it's 'whoever' … if you're speaking to a
bunch of people it's 'whomever'".
With that, our team leader tells the
person on the phone, "John (not his real name) has just told me the
answer: 'whoever' refers to a single person, and 'whomever' refers to
a lot of people."
I
almost asked out loud, "Are American schools really churning out
raving ignoramuses?"
Trying hard to keep my laughter under
control, I asked, "John, are you sure about that?" John says,
"I'm pretty sure..."
Now, I'm not sure if this guy and the
team leader attended college or not, but I'm certain they graduated
from high school. So, how come they missed the lesson on the correct
usage of 'whoever' and 'whomever'? I remember we learned that in
junior high, which in Liberia is 7th to 9th
grades.
Here's the short answer: "Whoever"
is a pronoun that can be used as the subject of a sentence. Example:
"Whoever arrives first wins a prize."
The other pronoun, "whomever", is
the objective case. It is used as the object of a clause or phrase.
Example: "Management will promote whomever the supervisor
recommends."
If I remember correctly, neither of
these pronouns has anything whatsoever to do with singular or plural.
'Whomever' is not the plural of 'whoever'.
Beyond this little matter of pronoun
usage, there is a bigger question here: Is it possible that these
one-time students were never adequately taught how to correctly use
'whoever' and 'whomever'? And if the answer to that question is even
a faint "Yes", then the American education system offers little
hope of a nation with an educated class that's fit to lead the world
in this century or the next.
Or, should the American school system hire non-natural-born English teachers, who tend to show
greater appreciation for the rules of the English language? Maybe those foreign-born English instructors will actually teach our kids the difference between 'whoever' and 'whomever'.
Yeah...I can hear the typical American student saying, "Whatever!"
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