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I'm relaxed about top priority. It is possible to have more than one priority in your life and so one of them can be the top one.

"You need to get your priorities right". In other words, put them in the right order. In which case one of them will come top.

BBC1 Look East lunchtime news today. Viewers encouraged to react to the hugging which is legal from Monday 18th May.

Who will you hug?

Are we resigned to the loss of whom? Or is its preservation a step too far even for supporters of this thread?

I expect it's been discussed here previously.

I'm with you, Paul.

Paul

To answer your question, I will give a virtual hug to all pedants a few days before the 17th.

Grunger

Looking forward to my hug - probably better for you that it`s virtual, I`ve been likened to an octopus on the dance floor 🐙

I didn't mention in my @2315 that 'Who will you hug?' was a caption on the TV screen. The lack of 'whom' is easier to ignore in casual speech, but to me it looks worse in 'writing'.

With support so far only from mathprof, it looks as though the bell tolls for whom.

I'm with you, paulh. I think people consciously avoid whom so as not to sound stuffy or pedantic. A number of pop songs are called Who do You Love? Whom do You Love? does not sound very rock and roll.

Has anyone tried the apostrophe test on the BBC website? According to it, Jesus' is right and Jesus's is wrong. Also Harris's is right and Harris' is wrong. Hmm...

Orson @2320 - apostrophes

I couldn't find the Jesus and Harris examples, but I read elsewhere about a good drill for the possessive apostrophe. It avoids worrying about singulars, plurals and what does or doesn't end in s.

1) Who is the 'owner'/who are the 'owners'?
2) Write down the owner(s).
3) Add an apostrophe.
4) Add an s if you need to (to make it sound right).

I agree therefore with the BBC's Harris's book. For James there are probably two correct options: James' book and James's book, depending on your own speech pattern.

With Jesus I think you can get away with Jesus's preaching and Jesus' preaching, depending on context, but Moses's mother sounds ridiculous so it has to be Moses' mother. Both would probably benefit by avoiding the construction altogether (the preaching of Jesus, the mother of Moses).

However, as demonstrated by the Men's Singles, children's clothes and all the girls' exams, the above drill should work every time.

Tyke

Thanks. Dont worry, you are like 99% of men on the dance floor, in my experience.

Paul

I forgot to say that I agree with you about "whom". I always say e.g. "who are you going with?" but would write "with whom are you going?", which sounds pompous.

Tyke

I was one of the lucky 6,500 at Goodison Park last night, and we got a Mars bar and a bottle of water! Lets hope next season is normal.