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In the first sentence, the clause is a noun clause, the object of "do
know" so "whom" there is not a relative pronoun and cannot be omitted as
it can be in the second sentence.
 
On Wed, 10 Dec 1997, Eric wrote:
>
> hi,
>         Could someone help me out here with this grammar lesson. I teach
 English
> as a second language:
>
> in the following two sentences:
>
> "I don't know who(m) I saw last night".
>
> "I like the girl who(m) i saw last night.
>
> ok, the above two, to my feeble understanding, both contain relative
> clauses which are,
> 1-defining
> 2-and both have the relative pronoun as object
>
> therefore they should, in both cases, be capable of being omitted.
Doesn't
> seem to work with sentence one.
> ok, so it looks like, in sentence one, that the relative clause is the
> object of the verb itself (know), but still, isn't it a relative clause
the
> object of the verb "saw" being "who(m)??
>
> thanks,   eric
>