Sentence Diagramming 9. Nominal Clause as Object of a Preposition

Yossarian the Grammarian shows you how to handle the diagram for a nominal clause (noun clause) that functions as the object of a preposition.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• grammar
• english
• lesson
• diagram
• subject
• verb
• reed
• kellogg

[DeMarkieSade]

Question: In a book I was reading called "the elements of style" by E. B. White and William Strunk, the two authors stated that when you have these nominal clauses as obejects of prepositions that one can in fact use "whoever" instead of "whomever," because "whoever I name next" that whole clause, would serve as the object of the preposition "to." What do you think of this mrthoth?

[mrthoth]

@DeMarkieSade It depends on what's going on in the clause that is the object of the preposition. (There's nothing special about clauses that are objects of prepositions; one always must look at what's going on INSIDE the clause in order to determine whether to use who or whom.) So it's "Give it to whoever arrives next" and "Give it to whomever I name next." The clause "whoever I name next" would be incorrect no matter how it appeared. See my videos on case (Halt! Whom goes there!)

[DeMarkieSade]

I wil do just that, mrthoth, and thank you for your videos and taking the time to teach those of us 'who' want to learn over the internet. Please, for my sake, and others like me that do want to learn, but who maybe didn't take high school and things as seriously as they should have---Keep it up for as long as you desire and possibly can.

You are most appreciated.

[brian5551000]

I was trying to diagram a sentence you used in your preposition video: "The man with the hat is nearly a hero." I am having trouble determining what part of speech "nearly a hero" is and where it would be placed on the tree. Could you please provide some guidance on this? Thanks!

[Hogibaer]

Thanks for keeping up the good work. Interesting as always, yet despite many similarities to my mother tongue German, there are occasional differences how you name and/or categorize parts of a sentence.