<p>This is a drill question from Princeton Review’s Cracking the ACT 2009 Edition.</p>
<p>The tallest (more than seven feet tall, if the markings are to be believed) was Peter the Great; the shortest was a king of Siam; who one hopes was only a boy at the time.
Underlined portion: “Siam; who”</p>
<ol>
<li>F. NO CHANGE
G. Siam. Who
H. Siam, whom
J. Siam, who</li>
</ol>
<p>I chose H, however…
The correct answer is J… How can it be???</p>
<p>It is “who.” I usually use the he/him rule. If it is he, then it is who. If it is him, then use whom. Allow me to demonstrate with your sentence:</p>
<p>The tallest (more than seven feet tall, if the markings are to be believed) was Peter the Great; the shortest was a king of Siam; who one hopes was only a boy at the time.</p>
<p>Try both ways and see which one sounds better (this probably only works if you’re a native speaker).
He was only a boy at the time.
Him was only a boy at the time. </p>
<p>He sounds better in the sentence, so use who instead of whom. </p>
<p>For other examples, I suggest that you google “who/whom rules.” That should bring some more comprehensive explanation and what to do in different situations.</p>
<p>I agree with getacar …
& I am not a native english speaker.</p>
<p>Yeah try not to be tricked by the subject-verb right after the who. Because the rule I learned is if you are referring to a subject of a verb, you use who. If not, you use whom. “hopes” though is not the verb here to focus on. “was” is.</p>
<p>wow, i’ve never honestly seen anyone else use the he/him rule too. I remember which one aligns to which because both him and whom end with “h”, while he and who do not.</p>
<p>I managed to get a 35 on the English using just that and choosing which one sounds better.</p>
<p>OHHH I realize. DUMM MICH!!! Ich war so verrückt und verwirrt! </p>
<p>I always tend to believe it’s whom when it’s followed by a preposition(which IS generally true), but also believe when verb is NOT followed directly by whom(which is WRONG mistake I did here). See… My mistake was believing that it’s whom whenever the verb does not follow after directly, since I am used to seeing a verb after who directly. An example in which my technique WOULD WORK “This weird YouTube video introduced me another Goddess called Gagalupe, whom I might praise.” But my technique should not be followed at all, since it doesn’t work all the time. Always go by he/she, the things you guys talked about</p>
<p>…the shortest was a king of Siam; who one hopes was only a boy at the time.
I realize now… The shortest was a king of Siam (one hopes HE was only a boy at the time – this now makes sense) not one hopes him was only a boy at the time.</p>
<p>Thanks! Danke schön.</p>
<p>^Bitte schön. Guten morgen haha (richtig?)</p>