Thursday, September 25, 2008

Practice #1.

From this Boing Boing post about Sarah Palin:

Andrew Sullivan, with whom I agree not all of the time, but do this time, says this about the CBS News interview embedded above: "All you can say is: unbelievable. Except it's true. She is the vice-presidential candidate of a national political party. Seriously."

The phrase I italicised is just really awkward. 'With whom' is usually deployed to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition, and the blogger was never in danger of that. What she really meant was:

Andrew Sullivan, who/whom I don't agree with all the time. . .

If she REALLY wanted to use 'with whom', I'd suggest:

Andrew Sullivan, with whom I disagree sometimes. . .

'Not all of the time' is as graceful as a clown in Dutch clogs. 'Whom' usage is sadly falling out of favour, and does sound a little old-fashioned and formal these days. Given the tone and content of Boing Boing, I think it would be consistent for the bloggers to stay away from 'whom'. Except in the steampunk posts, of course. ;)