The man ‘that’, the people ‘that’ - whatever happened to ‘who’?

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

I’m seeing it everywhere, inc. on MN.
Bring back ‘who’ - it wasn’t doing any harm!

Or “whom”! I know, I know. Tend to avoid people, who don’t use correct grammar.

another one that guarantees I don’t speak to a human is “there’s/their/ there /there’re situation. Really isn’t rocket science, is it?

I agree. There for their or they're seems to be everywhere on SM.

Agree, OP!

Yes, makes people sound like objects

Correct grammar has gone out of the window, even for newspaper articles and younger teachers. Some I know who have achieved a degree in English have terrible grammar, it's shameful. I need a job which involves correcting these mistakes and be paid a fortune! Xx

The prevalence of spelling and grammar errors on social media is shocking.
Many are posts from people claiming to be teachers or PhD students.

Some errors are typos, and I'm as guilty as the next person, but some posts are difficult to understand.

I think that/who is a question of usage, not grammar. Fowler's Modern English Usage actually calls for more frequent use of 'that', though acknowledges that people are reluctant to use 'that' about a person as it's not felt to be as polite. Fowler wants to distinguish between 'that' and 'who' in the same way as he does between 'that' and 'which'.

You may need to consider your own grammar first.

See also: starting a question, eg on game shows, with “what” instead of “which”!

I don’t know if it’s grammatically incorrect but it sounds shit.

“What country is the largest?” UGH

I'll stick to who/whom/whose.

@Jeannie88 , I sometimes work as an editor. It's not particularly well paid. The money is OK but it's usually short term. Much of it is re-phrasing text, not just correcting spelling and grammar.

Some people have a gift for writing in their own voice, and that has a charm. If the message is clear and has no obvious errors then it's usually fine.
Anything that has an air of pomposity or jargon about it tends to have me wielding my virtual green pen.

Discreet and discrete.

I think you might be on the wrong thread @Oneearringlost .

The woman * I spoke to is an old colleague.

*In this sentence “Who/that/ [zero]” are all possible because the woman is the object of the second clause. I spoke to her.

The woman * sold me her car didn’t mention the broken light.

*In this sentence “who/that” are both possible because the woman is the subject of the second clause. She sold me the car. “who” is more traditional but “that” isn’t wrong.

Personally I go for [] as much as possible.
Away with redundancy!