Celebrity English

"I went for my annual mammogram - I've been getting them yearly since I was 35 - and [the doctor] saw new calcifications. I wasn't nervous about it, so when they told me to come back in six months, I left the clinic. Three hours later, my ob-gyn, whom I've been seeing for years, called and said, 'I never recommend waiting six months for anything.' She set me up with an oncologist, and two days later I had the needle biopsy done." - Sheryl Crow, in Glamour, on her breast cancer diagnosis

Sheryl has correctly used an objective relative pronoun as the direct object of an adjective clause. Way to go, Sheryl!

In the adjective clause "whom I've been seeing for years," the subject is "I," the verb is "have been seeing," and the direct object is the objective relative pronoun "whom."

A common error is the use of the subjective relative pronoun "who" in an objective role in a sentence. If Sheryl had used the adjective clause "who I've been seeing for years," she would have made such an error.

To determine whether to use "who" or "whom" in a sentence, rearrange the words and replace the relative pronoun with a personal pronoun. It is helpful to use "he" and "him" even if the person is female because both "him" and "whom" end in "m" and both of these pronouns are objective.

Start with the original clause:

• whom I've been seeing for years

Rearrange the words so that the subject is at the beginning of the clause:

• I've been seeing whom

Replace the objective relative pronoun "whom" with the objective personal pronoun "him":

• I've been seeing him

This makes sense. "I've been seeing he" does not make sense, so neither does "who I've been seeing."