Infinitives and their pronouns

Here is a rule that many people don’t seem to know or remember: Use the objective case of a pronoun as the subject of an infinitive (a verb with the word “to”). Here are some examples:All three brothers had had lapses in judgment, and their parents didn’t know whom to trust.

Because of the anonymity of the Internet, you often have no way of knowing whom to believe.

We will publish the number for each county’s emergency office, so readers will know whom to call in a disaster.

“The Writer’s Digest Grammar Desk Reference” explains the reason for this construction. The pronoun and the infinitive follow a transitive verb.

However, as “The Gregg Reference Manual” points out, if the infinitive is “to be,” use the nominative case.The director asked the boy who he wanted to be in the play.

This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Co.; is posted here to provide continuity; and is copyright © 2011 The News & Observer Publishing Company, which reserves the right to remove this post.