Timeline for WHY do so many people struggle with ‘who’ and ‘whom’?

7 events

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Nov 24, 2017 at 0:01	history	bounty ended	English Student
Nov 22, 2017 at 17:53	comment	added	ruakh		@user58319: For italics, use asterisks: `whom` becomes whom. For your question: I think it's 100% fine to say that something is "the subject of had been", as you suggest, but I don't know why you'd insist upon it. "Had been" is not an inseparable unit, since we can say things like "Had it always been there?" "Yes, it had."
Nov 22, 2017 at 9:28	comment	added	user58319		@ruakh: in your last paragraph, shouldn't it be "where whom (I can't italicise it) is erroneously being used as the subject of had been (again, I can't italicise)"?
Nov 20, 2017 at 23:32	vote	accept	English Student
Aug 16, 2017 at 22:38	vote	accept	English Student
Nov 18, 2017 at 16:39
Jul 8, 2017 at 22:10	comment	added	English Student		What an excellent answer that really made me understand 'why' people struggle with 'who/whom': so even great writers get caught out! Could the great Defoe have avoided error simply by omitting the 'had been' as in one of my cats that ran away from me, and whom I thought dead,returned(...)? It's easy to write grammatically, but do you know how difficult it is to write a good answer about grammar? It is not my strong suit: I am not articulate with it, and could write and write without making your point(s) -- so I greatly appreciate the quality and clarity of this very insightful explanation.
Jul 8, 2017 at 16:11	history	answered	ruakh	CC BY-SA 3.0