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Comment by bane | Hacker News Reader

A side comment, we really have to collectively agree to drop "whom". It's archaic and has not been part of common usage for at least the last century if not longer. It's noticeable only with the unusually low frequency it shows up and does nothing to aid or clarify communication. It's like spelling "old" with a silent final 'e', "olde".

It's time to get over this and move the language forward a bit, thank you.

rant off

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I think "whom" is still in use. I still use it, and I still see it used in the emails my friends send me.

Despite that, I agree with part of what you say: it would be good to modernize the language.

It still shows up in formal writing with some frequency, but it's slowly fading away. Most modern formal writing guides usually have a footnote or some such to note that. In less formal speech, it's pretty much unheard these days.

Anecdotally, I went and searched my email archives, going back to 1992, and I found a couple dozen uses of it, all in emails I received from religious family members quoting the bible.

So ... you've come full circle back to prescriptivism then? Great, now you just have to get on the faculty at Oxford and you can foist your opinions regarding correct usage of the English language on the world. Or failing that, you can work your way on to the editorial board of the newspaper-of-record of major Anglophonic nation, like, I don't know, the New York Times.

That was rather rancorous.

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