People sometimes ask me when they should use “who” and when they should use “whom”.

 

To answer, I’m going to share a tip that I always share with my students. However, I’m going to use the words of one of my favourite resources on all topics grammar – Grammar Girl – just because her explanation is so clear:

 

“Like whom, the pronoun him ends with m. When you’re trying to decide whether to use who or whom, ask yourself if the answer to the question would be he or him. That’s the trick: if you can answer the question being asked with him, then use whom, and it’s easy to remember because they both end with m. So, if you were asking, ‘Who (or whom) do you love?’ the answer would be ‘I love him.’ Him ends with m, so you know to use whom. So it’s, ‘Whom do you love?’. But if you were trying to ask, ‘Who (or whom) stepped on Squiggly?’ the answer would be, ‘He stepped on Squiggly.’ There’s no m, so you know to use who. So, it’s, ‘Who stepped on Squiggly?’”

 

You can read the full post, with the grammatical reason behind the above tip (that you use who when you are referring to the subject of a clause, and whom when you are referring to the object of a clause) at http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/who-versus-whom.

 

Regards,

Louise

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