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Q. When do you use whom instead of who?
A. Use who when a nominative pronoun is appropriate, and whom when an objective pronoun is
appropriate.
Who is a nominative pronoun (meaning it acts as a subject) and is used:
- As the subject of a verb, as in "It was Paul who rescued the dog."
- As the complement of a linking verb, as in "They know who you are."
Whom
is an objective pronoun (meaning it serves as an object) and is used:
- As the object of a verb, as in "Whom did you see?"
- As the object of a preposition, as in "That is the group to whom the credit belongs."
Who and whom seem to cause more difficulty than other pronouns. Thus, when in doubt, substitute
him and see if that sounds right. If him is OK, then whom is OK. For example: "You talked to whom?
You talked to him." It would be incorrect to say "You talked to he," and few native English speakers would make that
mistake.
from www.dictionary.com
Q. When do you use lie and lay?
A. To lay is to place something; to lie is to recline.
To lay is to place something. It is always followed by an object, the thing being placed. To lie
is to recline. Here are examples: He lays the book down to eat. She lies quietly on the chaise.
Part of the source of the confusion is the past tense of lie, which is lay: She lay on the
chaise all day. The past participle of lie is lain, as in She has lain there since yesterday, as a matter
of fact. The past tense of lay is laid; the past participle is also laid.
What is an error in English?
The concept of language errors is a fuzzy one. I'll leave to linguists the technical
definitions. Here we're concerned only with deviations from the standard use of English as judged by sophisticated users such
as professional writers, editors, teachers, and literate executives and personnel officers. The aim of this site is to help
you avoid low grades, lost employment opportunities, lost business, and titters of amusement at the way you write or speak.
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