Peter was afraid

[Bassim]

Would you please help me and correct the mistakes in my sentence? I am not sure if its phrasing and punctuation are correct.

Peter was afraid of losing his job because without it he would be nothing - a plain, small man who no woman would ever glance at in the street.

 

[tedmc]

Peter was afraid of losing his job because, without it, he would be nothing but a plain, small man whom no woman would ever glance at in the street.

 

[Bassim]

Thank you, tedmc,

You don't think that I could use a dash sign in my sentence (nothing - plain, small man)?

 

[Matthew Wai]

... a plain, small man whom no woman would ever glance at in the street.

If I recall correctly, the teachers said that 'who' was more common than 'whom'.

 

[Rover_KE]

If you did that you can't omit 'a' before 'plain'.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Matthew, that is true, but "whom" is still correct.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Bassim:

May I just point out three unimportant points?

1. Some people would use two lines for a dash. (One line is a hyphen.) Thus: "We are alike -- on the inside." -- Mark Twain.

2. If you wish to avoid the who / whom controversy, use neither. A relative pronoun is not necessary in your sentence, especially in speech.

3. Some people might be more comfortable with "on the street."


Thus: "Peter was afraid of losing his job because, without it, he would be nothing -- a plain, small man no woman would ever even glance at on the street."

 

[Matthew Wai]

Matthew, that is true, but "whom" is still correct.

If 'whom' is used, would it be better to put 'at' before it, i.e. 'at whom'?

 

[MikeNewYork]

There is already an "at" in that sentence. I think it is in the proper place.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I don't agree that the ending preposition changes registers.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I am a "whom" person because it is grammatical. I am not against ending a sentence with a preposition because that practice is also grammatical. Some "rules" come and then they go.

 

[MikeNewYork]

And how do you determine register? Is that written down somewhere? We have our own preferences. Let's just leave it at that.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I imagine Matthew was suggesting moving the 'at' rather than adding an 'at'.

Exactly.

I am a "whom" person because it is grammatical.

What exactly does that mean?

I take it to mean 'I am a person who supports the use of "whom" because it is grammatical'.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Yes, Matthew. And I am certain that Piscean understood that.

 

[Auldlangsyne]

(not a teacher)


To whom it may concern,

To produce an em dash, press and hold down the Alt key, and then choose from the numeric keyboard: 0151.

:-D