Three More Cheers: Real-Life Examples of Good Writing No. 2

"Newspapers reported the attack on Fitzsimons. One said that detectives wanted to find out from her whom she drove on the night Jones died and if she was present at Jones's home at any time during the fatal evening."

That sentence appears in a July 5, 2009 article by Scott Jones in the U.K. Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1090439/Has-riddle-Rolling-Stone-Brian-Joness-death-solved-last.html). The subject of the article is the death of the Rolling Stones' founder Brian Jones--whether he died accidentally (as has long been argued) or whether he was murdered.

But this blog doesn't care about that part of the article. It cares about Scott Jones' correct use of the word whom in the second sentence quoted above.

Most writers nowadays would say "who she drove...." They would be wrong because the subject of that clause is "she," the verb is "drove," and "whom" is the direct object. A direct object should be written in what's known as the objective form, and whom is the objective form. (Who is the nominal form and is to be used when it is the subject of a clause ["Who stole the midget's bowling ball?"] or when it is the complement of a linking verb [which, come to think of it, it seldom is].)

However, as with yesterday's example of correct word usage, Jones' whom triumph is sullied somewhat by his use of if for whether: "[D]etectives wanted to find out from her whom she drove on the night Jones died and if she was present...."

If is best used to start adverb clauses--i.e., clauses that modify verbs ("We will kiss the midget if we can find him"). As used by Jones, if is starting a noun clause ("if she was present" is the direct object of the infinitive expression to find out).

Whether starts noun clauses.