Is it correct to say "By who was this stick broken?" instead of "Who was this stick broken by"?
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Could you give reference of your sentence, like where did you read it or take it from? – Dhanishtha Ghosh Sep 17 '20 at 13:49
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I thought it up. – WillS Sep 17 '20 at 13:52
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Oh, I see. In my personal experience I have rarely heard the first sentence, though I have no idea if it correct or not. The second one though looks fine. – Dhanishtha Ghosh Sep 17 '20 at 13:58
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2It would be more natural as "Who broke this stick?" – Weather Vane Sep 17 '20 at 14:28
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Indeed, but my question is whether By Who is any correct. – WillS Sep 17 '20 at 14:51
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5Neither, strictly it should be by whom although the usage in your stilted sentences has become acceptable. Please see How can one differentiate between “who” and “whom”? – Weather Vane Sep 17 '20 at 15:03
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Whom and who is the same thing. You can use it interchangeably, but our modern English suggests to use whom only in the dative case. – WillS Sep 17 '20 at 16:03
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The easy way to decide which interrogative pronoun to use is to note that since a potential *answer* to the question is (It was broken by) him, it should be whom. As opposed to Who* broke it?* (answer *he did,* not *him*), – FumbleFingers Sep 17 '20 at 18:15
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"By who was this stick broken?" is so ridiculously unidiomatic, that no one would say it. If you were to insist on saying it, it would be about 1% less strange with "whom", to match the stilted style of the expression. Maybe you could write it in a poem poking fun at strange ways of speaking.
The most natural thing to say is:
"Who broke this stick?"
If you insist on using passive voice, then you could say "Who was this stick broken by.", but even that is unnatural.
Jack O'Flaherty
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There's a "rule" that some English teachers and very pedantic people believe in: Never end a sentence with a preposition.
The reasoning behind the rule is that a preposition must have an object. Usually the object follows the preposition. So if a sentence ends with a preposition, there is no object. So for example, if I said, "This stick was broken by", period end of sentence, a reader would naturally ask, "Who? Who or what broke it?"
The fallacy here is that the rule goes from "usually the object follows" to assuming that the object must always follow. This is simply not true. It is not uncommon to vary the word order. Sometimes for emphasis, sometimes for rhythm, etc. For example, a normal word order would be to say, "The stick was broken by Fred." But if I want to emphasize Fred over the stick, I might say, "Fred was the person that the stick was broken by."
Your example isn't the best for this discussion. Instead of saying, "Fred was the person that the stick was broken by", I'd be more like to say, "Fred was the person who broke the stick." A better example would be, say, "Fred was the person the box was given to." There I need a preposition to convey the desired meaning.
People who insist on following this rule often end up with awkward "by whom" constructions. Instead of saying the clear and simple, "Fred was the person the box was given to", they insist one must say, "Fred was the person to whom the box was given". This adds more words and is awkward. The only reason I see for doing it is to follow this pointless rule.
This gets particularly silly when it comes to questions. In questions, we routinely put an interrogative word like "who" or "what" at the beginning of the sentence. So the natural way to ask the question is, "Who was the box given to?", they insist on, "To whom was the box given?"
So all of that said ... Most fluent English speakers would say, "Who broke the stick?" If there's some reason for saying "broken by", they would say, "Who was this stick broken by?" Some number of pedants would insist on, "By whom was this stick broken?"
Note you should say "by whom" rather than "by who". "Who" is used for a subject; "whom" is used for an object, either the object of a verb or the object of a preposition. In English we don't normally change the form of a word for subject vs object, but we do for most pronouns. "He gave it" vs "It was given to him". She/her, I/me, we/us, you/you (same form there), they/them, who/whom.
Jay
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