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These three words are also called relative pronouns as they are able to take the place of a pronoun. Relative pronouns have caused lots of confusion among students. When do you use “who“, “whom” and “whose“? See the following examples:

1. The boy who lives next door has a big mole on his face.
2. The boy whom we just met has a big mole on his face.
3. The boy whose father is a politician has a big mole on his face.

The underlined words describe which boy the speaker is talking about. Therefore, they are adjective clauses. Furthermore, all three sentences could be separated in order to explain the difference. Let’s use the same three sentences:

4. The boy has a big mole on his face. He lives next door.
5. The boy has a big mole on his face. We just met him.
6. The boy has a big mole on his face. His father is a politician.

Sentence #1 means exactly the same as Sentence #4,
Sentence #2 means exactly the same as Sentence #5, and
Sentence #3 means exactly the same as sentence #6

In Sentence #4, the pronoun “he” is the Subject of the sentence: “He lives next door.” Therefore, you have to use “who“.
In Sentence #5, the pronoun “him“, is the Object of the sentence: “We just met him.” Therefore, use “whom“.
In Sentence #6, the pronoun “his” shows possession. Therefore use “whose“.

Take Note:
Subject pronouns = he, she, it, I, you, we, they
Object pronouns = him, her, it, me, you, us, them
Possessive (adjective) = his, her, its, my, your, our, their

Elaboration (sentence pattern rule):

He lives next door. – “he” is the Subject of the sentence, so use “who”
(S)   (V)

We just met him. – “him“  is the Object of the sentence, so use “whom”
(S)           (V)  (O)

Remember this:
When you join sentences together using adjective clauses, you cannot simply join them with “who“, “whom” or “whose” immediately after your main sentences, so it is wrong to say:

• The boy has a big mole on his face who lives next door. (X)
• The boy has a big mole on his face whom we just met him. (X)
• The boy has a big mole on his face whose his father is a politician. (X)

Practice:
Now try this. Join these sentences correctly with “who“, “whom” or “whose“. I’ve underlined the subjects, objects and possessives to help you:

1. The doctor is a well-qualified medical practitioner. He is wearing a thick pair of glasses.
2. This dog comes from the dog pound. Its owner was a criminal.
3. The old lady comes from a wealthy family. She owns two shophouses in the city.
4. The girls have identical characters. Their parents are farmers.
5. The three children were my neighbour’s children. The firemen rescued them.
6. That elderly man is a college professor. I talked to him earlier.

Often, we use the phrase “wake up” when we actually mean “get up“, and vice versa. Both are not interchangeable. It is incorrect to say: “I got up at 7:00 a.m. today” when you had actually just opened your eyes at that time! Both sentences below are correct but mean differently:

1. Peter woke up in the middle of the night.
2. Peter got up in the middle of the night.

“Wake up” means opening your eyes after sleeping.

“Get up” means repositioning your body from a lying down position to stand on the ground.

Sentence #1 actually makes more sense because Peter has to wake up first before getting up.

Examples:

1. When you fall, you have to get up and continue running.
2. I’m too lazy to get up; they weather’s so cool and I could continue sleeping.
3. They didn’t sleep well because their newborn baby woke up often at night.
4. Wake up!! It’s already 9:00 a.m., and you’re late for work.

Note:
Some people use the phrase “get out”. Avoid using this phrase. “Get out” generally means leave (somewhere), escape or withdraw.

The word “special” is really unique. It could come in various forms, and are used differently to mean different things. What’s the difference between the two sentences below?

1. I’ve made this greeting card specially for you.
2. I love your greeting cards, especially this one.

specially vs. especially

• specially (adv.) means “very” and “for one purpose“
• especially (adv.)  means “particularly” or “mainly“

Examples:

1. I specially like your ponytail.
2. I made this craft specially for you.
3. I rains heavily, especially in October.
4. John plays lots of computer games, especially adventure games.

specialization vs.  speciality (US: specialty)

• specialization (n.) means “knowing a lot about something“
• speciality (n.) means “distinct”, “novelty“

Examples:

1. Teaching how to use multimedia in the learning process is his specialization.
2. Cardiology is not his specialization; he specializes in oncology.
3. The local speciality is mat-weaving.
   
4. The menu says that today’s speciality is pumpkin soup.
   

This morning, as I was tuned in to the local radio station, there was a talk show. The topic was about men’s expectations towards women.  I was at the traffic lights when I heard the following statement:

• I like all kinds of people especially men.

At a glance, the statement appears to be correct. Look closer, and you’ll ask yourself, besides men and women, what other kinds of people are there?  Perhaps the caller was referring to people with different characteristics like kindness, gentleness, honesty, courage etc. Whatever it is, the word “especially” was wrongly used in that statement.

Perhaps the caller was trying to say one of the following:

• I like everyone.
• I like loving, gentle and courageous men.
• I like men who have a good social status.

I’m not exactly sure, but what do you think the caller meant?

If you’d like to learn more about “especially” and its related cousins, click here.

I quite often hear people say “push off” to mean “go / leave“. See this example:

• We’re going to push off at 2pm tomorrow.

I’ve checked the Cambridge Dictionary (UK) and Dictionary.com (US), and discovered that “push off” means “depart“  or “leave“ in the U.S. dictionary, while the U.K. dictionary doesn’t include this meaning. See how we mix English varieties when we speak and write? The gap between UK English and US English is getting narrower. One fine day, there won’t be a gap anymore, and we would use both varieties interchangeably without having the need to distinguish which is UK English and which is US English.