Interrogative pronouns—who, whom, whose, which, and what—introduce questions.

Who Vs. Whom

Who is in subjective case. It can be used in two situations: as the subject of a verb or as the predicate nominative after a linking verb:

Who hosted a Halloween party this year?

It was who?

Whom is in objective case. It can also be used in two situations: as the object of a verb or preposition:

Whom did you invite to your Halloween party?

As whom did you dress for your costume?

If you’re having a hard time figuring out whether the interrogative pronoun is in subjective or objective case, substitute he or him, rewriting the sentence as necessary:

He hosted a Halloween party this year.

You invited him to your Halloween party.

If you would use he in the sentence, then use who. If you would use him in the sentence, use whom. Just remember that the m’s in him and whom go together.

Whose is in the possessive case and thus shows ownership:

Whose costume was best at the party?

Who Vs. Which

When working as interrogative pronouns, who and which can both refer to people, but their uses differ.

Who is general. Use it when anyone could be the answer:

Who wants to go trick-or-treating this year?

Who also asks about the identity of a specific person:

Who is that woman dressed as a witch?

Which is limited, asking for a member of a group:

Which Beatle are you supposed to be?

Which Vs. What

Either which or what can be used when referring to a person or thing:

Which one of you made your own costume?

What kind of candy did you hand out to trick-or-treaters this year?

When used in reference to a person, what asks a question about that person—what they’re like, what they do, etc.:

What do you think of the party’s host?

When used in reference to a thing, what is used broadly to ask for a thing, especially among a set:

What are you supposed to be?

What was the best costume of the night?

Do you have a question about pronouns? Let me know, and I’ll include it in a future installment of Mots Justes’ ongoing series.

The Mots Justes Series on Pronouns

Part I—The Basics

Part II—Location, Location, Location

Part III—Number

Part IV—Person

Part V—Gender, Plus “They” as a Gender-Neutral Singular Pronoun

Part VI—On the Case

Part VII—Something Personal Between You and Me

Part VIII—Infinitives

Part IX—Indeterminate Gender

Part X—Indefinitely (We, You, and They)

Part XI—Indefinitely (It)

Part XII—Possession

Part XIII—Addresses

Resources

Chicago Manual of Style, The. 15th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Hacker, Diana, The Bedford Handbook for Writers, 3rd ed. Boston: St. Martin’s Press: 1991.

One of my oldest, dearest friends uses the word irregardless. She is smart and highly educated, yet insists on using this non-word. Should I correct her? Cracked.com says yes and lists eight other words that don’t mean what we think they do with advice on whether it’s worth insisting people use them the right way. Although the site’s presentation is crude, the explanations of how we’re using peruse, ironic, pristine, nonplussed, bemused, enormity, plethora, and deceptively incorrectly and what they really mean are clear and entertaining. Do you have any to add?

Writer’s Digest’s prolific blogroll introduced a new feature a couple of months ago: Promptly, a blog updated three times a week with writing exercises to get the juices flowing. I started digging around in the relatively recent archives and discovered a prompt centered around words that have already been written—and published: “Pull a random, seemingly unimportant, out-of-context line from a book, and use it as prompt fodder.”

I did this with A Thousand Acres, the book that inspired me to be a writer. I wasn’t about to page throughout my four-hundred-word copy looking an inspirational line, so I used a random number generator to select pages for me. On the second page it sent me to, I found this:

I don’t know why I was surprised to discover everything changed, since it was obvious in retrospect that I had sought to change it.

As one of my mentors says, when you’re ready, go to the page and write what needs to be written.

When addresses and place names appear in text, use commas to separate the individual elements. Think of it this way: at any point where you would start a new line when addressing an envelope, use a comma (so don’t set off abbreviations such as NE or zip codes with commas):

When touring the nation’s capital, make sure to schedule a visit to the White House, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, preferably in early April when the Japanese Cherry Blossoms are blooming.

When Jeff and I vacationed in Washington a few years ago, we rented a car and drove to Baltimore, Maryland, to watch the Vikings play the Ravens.

It can get awkward when you’re using a place name that requires a comma as an adjective:

This weekend, the Vikings played the Baltimore, Maryland, Ravens and beat them in a close game.

Your best bet is to rewrite the sentence to avoid the issue:

This weekend, the Vikings played the Baltimore Ravens and beat them in a close game.

This weekend, the Vikings played the Ravens from Baltimore, Maryland, and beat them in a close game.

Do you have a question about the comma? Let me know, and I’ll include it in a future installment of Mots Justes’ ongoing series.

The Mots Justes Series on Commas

Part I—To Serialize or Not to Serialize

Part II—Independent Thinking

Part III—Co-dependents

Part IV—Making Introductions

Part V—Interjections

Part VI—Parentheticals

Part VII—It’s All Relative

Part VIII—Adjectives

Part IX—Contrast

Part X—Adjectival Phrases and Appositives

Part XI—In Other Words

Part XII—Making the Transition

Part XIII—Confusion Busting

Part XIV—On One Condition

Part XV—Absolutely

Part XVI—As Well, Too

Part XVII—Dates

Resources

Chicago Manual of Style, The. 15th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Hacker, Diana, The Bedford Handbook for Writers, 3rd ed. Boston: St. Martin’s Press: 1991.

This, that, these, and those are demonstrative pronouns—or, if you want to get fancy about it, deictic pronouns—that identify or point directly to their antecedents.

This and that are used for singular antecedents:

This is my professional blog about “finding the right words.”

That is my personal blog about staycationing in Los Angeles.

These and those are used for plural antecedents:

These are posts about writing and editing.

Those are posts about getting out and being a tourist in my hometown.

In all of the examples given so far, the demonstrative pronoun has functioned like a noun equivalent in the sentence, but demonstrative pronouns often work as adjectives:

I have been posting to this blog for over a year.

I just started that blog last month.

This and these refer to things that are nearby, whether in time, space, or thought, while these and those refer to things that are farther away.

The antecedent for a demonstrative pronoun can be a noun, phrase, clause, sentence, or implied thought, as long as it’s clear.

Kinda Sorta

Kind of and sort of, when use to mean “a class of,” are often used with adjectival forms of demonstrative pronouns:

This kind of professional blog helps me learn more about my craft while connecting me with other writers and editors.

Those sorts of personal blogs provide structure to my free time while giving me another outlet for creative writing.

Do you have a question about pronouns? Let me know, and I’ll include it in a future installment of Mots Justes’ ongoing series.

The Mots Justes Series on Pronouns

Part I—The Basics

Part II—Location, Location, Location

Part III—Number

Part IV—Person

Part V—Gender, Plus “They” as a Gender-Neutral Singular Pronoun

Part VI—On the Case

Part VII—Something Personal Between You and Me

Part VIII—Infinitives

Part IX—Indeterminate Gender

Part X—Indefinitely (We, You, and They)

Part XI—Indefinitely (It)

Part XII—Possession

Resources

Chicago Manual of Style, The. 15th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Hacker, Diana, The Bedford Handbook for Writers, 3rd ed. Boston: St. Martin’s Press: 1991.

That is, do you suffer from Grammar Obsessive Disorder?

NaNoWriMo—i.e., National Novel Writing Month—is right around the corner. Here’s an exercise from Creative Writing Corner to get you warmed up: write a story in a day.

There are two tacks you can take with this general idea:

1. Choose a day, a significant day, in the life of a character, and write a story that takes place over the course of just those twenty-four hours.
2. Take a page from twenty-four-hour play festivals or the 48-Hour Film Project and write a complete story, from beginning to end, in twenty-four hours.

Good luck, and let me know how it goes!

In the United States, dates are expressed using a month-day-year format. In this style, a pair of commas sets off the year from the rest of the sentence:

On September 1, 1998, I arrived in Los Angeles for the first time.

The March 27, 2009, interview yielded unexpected opportunities months later.

In the latter example, the date modifies interview. This construction can be awkward, as the adjectival phrase March 27, 2009, points the reader forward toward interview while the commas around 2009 point the reader back toward March 27. The sentence can easily be rewritten, however, to avoid the issue altogether:

The interview on March 27, 2009, yielded unexpected opportunities months later.

In other parts of the English-speaking world, dates are expressed in the much more sensible day-month-year format in which no commas are used:

I graduated from my master’s program on 15 May 2009.

Also, when only a month and year or a specific day (such as a holiday) are mentioned, no commas are used:

Both my parents and my sister and brother-in-law celebrate milestone anniversaries in June 2010.

My good friend’s baby was born on Mother’s Day 2009.

Do you have a question about the comma? Let me know, and I’ll include it in a future installment of Mots Justes’ ongoing series.

The Mots Justes Series on Commas

Part I—To Serialize or Not to Serialize

Part II—Independent Thinking

Part III—Co-dependents

Part IV—Making Introductions

Part V—Interjections

Part VI—Parentheticals

Part VII—It’s All Relative

Part VIII—Adjectives

Part IX—Contrast

Part X—Adjectival Phrases and Appositives

Part XI—In Other Words

Part XII—Making the Transition

Part XIII—Confusion Busting

Part XIV—On One Condition

Part XV—Absolutely

Part XVI—As Well, Too

Resources

Chicago Manual of Style, The. 15th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Hacker, Diana, The Bedford Handbook for Writers, 3rd ed. Boston: St. Martin’s Press: 1991.

In addition to subjective and objective, personal pronouns have a third case: possessive. Possessive pronouns show ownership. They are singular (my, your, his, etc.) or plural (our, your, their, etc.) in form.

The possessive pronouns my, our, your, his, her, its, and their act as adjectives that qualify nouns:

My friends Lindsey and Mitra visited from San Francisco this weekend.

They invited their friends out for sushi Friday night.

Then on Saturday morning, Mitra made plans to eat at her favorite brunch place, followed by shopping on Melrose.

The absolute or independent forms mine, ours, yours, his, hers, its, and theirs act as nouns. Just like nouns, they can be the subject of a sentence or the object of a verb or preposition:

My car is parked two blocks away; theirs is across the street.

Because Jeff bought his concert ticket, Scott paid both his dinner tab and ours.

On Friday night Jeff and I spent time with my friends; on Saturday we went out with his.

This table summarizes the numbers and forms of possessive pronouns:

Singular Possessive Pronouns

Adjectival                            Noun

First Person                    my                                  mine
Second Person              your                                 yours
Third Person            his, her, its                    his, hers, its

Plural Possessive Pronouns

Adjectival                            Noun

First Person                   our                                  ours
Second Person              your                                yours
Third Person                their                                theirs

Do you have a question about pronouns? Let me know, and I’ll include it in a future installment of Mots Justes’ ongoing series.

The Mots Justes Series on Pronouns

Part I—The Basics

Part II—Location, Location, Location

Part III—Number

Part IV—Person

Part V—Gender, Plus “They” as a Gender-Neutral Singular Pronoun

Part VI—On the Case

Part VII—Something Personal Between You and Me

Part VIII—Infinitives

Part IX—Indeterminate Gender

Part X—Indefinitely (We, You, and They)

Part XI—Indefinitely (It)

Resources

Chicago Manual of Style, The. 15th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Hacker, Diana, The Bedford Handbook for Writers, 3rd ed. Boston: St. Martin’s Press: 1991.

Strunk Jr., William, and White, E.B. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. New York: Longman, 2000.