16 Apr A Grammar Blog

In the first episode of Series 1 of “Downton Abbey”, the screenwriter Julian Fellowes has Her Ladyship commit a grammatical error when she says, “Of course, I’ve never understood why this estate goes to whomever inherits your title.”

Whomever in this sentence should be whoever, because this word is the subject of the verb “inherits” in the subordinate clause.

It might at first appear that whomever is the object of the preposition to, but in fact the whole clause, correctly stated as “whoever inherits your title”, is the object of the preposition to. 

Where did Her Ladyship go to school?