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The sentence is from The Economist.

Original sentence

But they cannot agree on who that should be.

My question

Would it be whom, if the sentence only were: "But they cannot agree on whom."?

I'm fully aware of the who/whom rules regarding prepostions. Is this a special case because "who" belongs to "who that should be"?

JoHKa
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    In principle it should probably be *whom* (on the grounds that a possible resolution is It should be him, not he). But whom** is hopelessly old-fashioned today (except after *to, in To whom am I speaking?* on the phone - but we often avoid that one by asking *Who am I speaking to?,* so it doesn't come immediately after the preposition). So just go with *who* and forget about the *who / whom* distinction, same as most native speakers. – FumbleFingers Jan 30 '23 at 14:01
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    ...note that if you remove *that should be* you could make a case for either *who* or *whom. That's because what you're left with might* occur in a context like They cannot agree on who should do it** (where a possible resolution is *He should do it, not Him*). – FumbleFingers Jan 30 '23 at 14:10
  • @FumbleFingers - okay, my thanks. I have asked this question because I, as you have said, thought that it possibly should be "whom" in the original sentence. But I didn't dare to ask. I mean, it is The Economist. You get me. – JoHKa Jan 30 '23 at 14:48
  • There are several instances of agree on who* that should be* in Google Books, but there;s only one instance of agree on whom* that should be*. Feasibly some benighted test-setter might still be looking for *whom* in a TEFL test, but actual native speakers left this one behind decades ago. Except when it follows immediately after preposition *to, in which case possibly most* of us still use *whom* (or rephrase! :) – FumbleFingers Jan 30 '23 at 15:05
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    One might be a little more tolerant of whom, as in from whom did you get it (comes naturally to me) but I'm probably a bit older than fumblefingers and likely to be categorised as hopelessly old fashioned. – Ronald Sole Jan 30 '23 at 15:10
  • @RonaldSole: Yes - probably quite a few people would use *whom* in your context. But it's still a context where *who / whom* immediately follows the preposition (and as with *Who am I speaking to?, we often just rephrase to avoid "awkwardness"). OP's context does actually have on* before *who / whom*, but it's a very "weak" preposition usage that many if not most of us wouldn't even include in the utterance anyway (it reads fine with no preposition). – FumbleFingers Jan 30 '23 at 16:27

1 Answers1

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In principle the text should probably use whom (on the grounds that a possible resolution is It should be him, not he).

But whom is hopelessly old-fashioned today (except after to, in To whom am I speaking? on the phone - but we often avoid that one by asking Who am I speaking to?, so it doesn't come immediately after the preposition).

So the easy answer is just go with who and forget about the who / whom distinction, same as most native speakers (different morphology for verb subject and object is primarily a feature of Latin, not English).

As commented, some people are happy with (or prefer) From whom did you get it? Which is again a context where the immediately preceding term is a preposition - unless we rephrase to put it at the end, as Who did you get it from?

It may be worth noting that OP's cited example features a very "weak" preposition on. I say "weak" because we can easily just remove it entirely without affecting anything else (except that if there's no preposition at all before who / whom, we're much more likely to use the modern simpler style.

FumbleFingers
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