As my contribution to the Rave Reviews Book Club’s mentoring program, I am posting short grammar lessons from time to time. In today’s post, I focus on its and it’s and who and whom, little words that can cause difficulties for the unwary writer.

Its and it’s.

Do you know the difference between “its” and “it’s”? Can you decide which to use when you are writing? Let’s check. Consider the sentence below:

When confronted with the rock in (its or it’s?) path, the snail suddenly stopped.

Which was your choice? “Its” or “it’s”?If you chose “its,” you correctly chose the possessive pronoun “its.” Other examples include: The dog licked itspaw. The cub found its mother.

If you chose “it’s,” you fell into the common pitfall of mistaking a contraction for a possessive pronoun. “It’s” is the contracted form of “it is” (pronoun plus verb of being). This contraction is correctly used in the following: It’s not ready now, or it is not ready now. Other contractions include “he’s” as in:He’s not here, or he is not here.

Who and Whom.

Spoken English is more relaxed than written English, so a writer has a great deal of latitude when it comes to the appearance of “who” and “whom” in dialogue. In narrative, though, the rules of written English prevail. Consider the following:

The sheriff trailed the man. The sheriff had seen the man earlier loitering near the school yard. To avoid repetition and create a more sophisticated sentence, join the two as follows:

The sheriff trailed the man (who or whom) he had seen earlier loitering near the school yard.

“Who” or “whom”? If you chose “whom,” you chose correctly. Why? The resulting sentence consists of an independent clause (“The sheriff trailed the man”) and a dependent clause (“whom he had seen earlier loitering near the school yard”). In the dependent clause, “whom” is the object, i.e., the man seen earlier. What confuses many people is that the dependent clause is in what is called “transposed” order, that is, the object (“whom” for “man”) precedes the verb (“had seen”). The objective pronoun “whom” is correct. Now consider this sentence:

The sheriff arrested the man (who or whom) had been loitering near the school yard.

“Who” or “whom”? In this sentence, “who” is the correct choice. “Who” is the subject in the dependent clause (“who had been loitering near the school yard”).

Now let’s up the ante. Consider the following:

She is the one (who or whom) I believe is responsible for this mess.

Scratching your head? “Who” is the correct choice. Why? The interjectory expression “I believe” does not affect the case of the relative pronoun “who,” which is the subject in the relative (dependent) clause “who is responsible for this mess.” Whether the expression “I believe” is set off by commas or not, the case of “who” is unchanged.

Here are some helpful resources (with links) to consult when in doubt about grammar, punctuation, spelling, style consistency, and so on:

Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition: Complete Course Grade 12

Words into Type

The Chicago Manual of Style

New Hart’s Rules (for the British perspective)

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