Grammar：Who, whose, who's, whom
【明報專訊】Pat: MoMo, who's going to the concert held in Cultural Centre tonight?
MO MO: I'm not sure, but I think Dr Panda and Bill are going. Do you know whom they are going with?
Pat: No...do you think we should ask?
MO MO: Yeah, let's ask Bill. He's the one who's organizing everything, so he'll know.
Pat: Good idea. By the way, who's performing tonight?
MO MO: A well-known conductor from Russia will conduct Scheherazade by Rimsky Korsakov tonight.
Pat: That's awesome. I've been wanting to listen to this piece. Whose idea was it to go to the concert?
MO MO: It was actually Bill's idea. He's been a fan of this Russian conductor for a long time and wanted to see him live. I'm glad he helped us to buy the tickets.
Pat: Me too. I can't wait to see who else is going and have a great time tonight.
■English highway﹕
''Who,'' ''whom,'' ''whose,'' and ''who's'' are all pronouns, but they have different uses and meanings.
''Who'' is a subject pronoun, meaning it is used as the subject of a sentence.
E.g. Who is coming to the party?
''Whom'' is an object pronoun, meaning it is used as the object of a sentence or as the object of a preposition.
E.g. Whom did you invite to the party?
Special usage: To whom it may concern
Something you write at the start of a formal letter or notice when you do not know exactly who it should be sent to.
''Whose'' is a possessive pronoun, meaning it is used to show possession or ownership.
E.g. Whose car is parked in the driveway?
''Who's'' is a contraction of ''who is'' or ''who has.''
E.g. Who's going to the party tonight?''
■Know more
Scheherazade (一千零一夜) is a musical piece composed by Russian composer, Rimsky-Korsakov(林姆斯基-高沙可夫) in 1888, based on the stories in The Arabian Nights.
■Gear up
Fill in the blanks with ''Who'', ''Whose'', ''Who's'' or ''Whom''.
1. _______ phone is ringing?
2. _______ did you give the book to?
3. _______ been eating my potato chips?
(Answer on next text)
■Glossary
conduct (v) 指揮
formal (adj) 正式的
possession (n) 擁有
contraction (n) 縮寫
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[Smarties' Power English 第403期]
