Difference between which and whom

[Evren]

Test No. incompl/elem-39 "Relative Pronoun Exercises", question 6

The car to ......... you are referring happens to be mine!

(a) that
(b) whom
(c) which

Test No. incompl/elem-39 "Relative Pronoun Exercises", answer 6

The car to which you are referring happens to be mine!

Correct answer: (c) which
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difference between which and whom

Evren

[Alan]

Hi,

Which is used for things and whom for people.
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English as a Second Language
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[evren]

Why can't we say:
The car that you are referring to happens to be mine.
And why ''to'' comes after the car?
Thanks.

[Conchita]

Hello Evren,

You can say it like that, too, and it's probably more used in speech. 'To' comes after 'car' in the formal way of saying that sentence. In fact, when I started learning English, you had to say it like that, i.e. 'the car to which you are referring', especially in written English. Your way of putting it was very colloquial, at least that's what I was taught. But times change and this language goes hand in hand with them...

Another example of English grammar's laxity is that now you can say 'that' for people, whereas some time ago you were supposed to use 'who' only (personally, though, I can't get used to saying something like: 'The man that gave me this').

[Alan]

Hi Evren,

Another point is you can't use to followed by that. Could I suggest you have a look at some stuff I've written for the site under the heading esl lessons. If you look through the index, you'll come to Relative Pronoun 1, 2 and 3.

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Phrasal Verbs/bring