Greedypigeon wrote:
Hi everyone,
Following was a question I came across:
"Neither of my aunts, both of whom visited Venice last spring, want to return"
While I don't have a problem with correcting the underlined part, should the word be who instead of whom because it acts as the subject in the clause?
Thanks in advance!
Hi
Greedypigeon , welcome to GMAT Club.
The subject is not
whom.
Whom is the object of the preposition OF.
The object of a preposition is never the subject of a clause.The subject of that clause is
both. We will see phrases such as
some of whom, many of whom, none of whom, or
both of whom,
all of which are very common phrase structures in English (I just used one).
Jargon: the pronouns
some, many, none and
both are called "indefinite pronouns."
The construction of this type of phrase that refers to people is this way:
indefinite pronoun + of + OBJECT pronoun (
Subject pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they
Object pronouns: me, you, him, her, it, us, them, whom
We should think
both of whom = both of them Them is never a subject.
Them go to the store. ouch.
Them doesn't actively do anything, ever.
Indefinite pronouns such as
both are still pronouns and thus able to function as a subject in the same way that a noun would.
Hope that helps.