Grammar 101: Who and Whom
February 3rd, 2011 by Michael Kwan
Fundamentally the same kinds of rules apply when choosing between who and whom as when you are choosing between me, myself, and I. The key concept to take home is the difference between a subject and an object.
Who is a subject form of the pronoun. Who bought the car? Who went to the store? It is used in much the same way as he or she in this regard. He bought the car. She went to the store.
Whom, by contrast, is the object form of the pronoun. It receives the verb, so to speak. Tim was sitting with whom? Christine gave the prize to whom? It is used in much the same way as him or her. Tim was sitting with him. Christine gave the prize to her.
These examples are the simplest, because they make use of those “helper” words: to, with, at, and so on. Even when you think about sentences that end in a preposition, the rule holds up:
Incorrect: “Who is Steve on the phone with?”
Correct: “With whom is Steve on the phone?”
You could stick with having the preposition at the end of the sentence, but true grammar sticklers won’t like that.
It gets more challenging when these prepositions aren’t there, but you still have to recognize that you should be using an object rather than a subject.
Whomever Russell interviews last will need to lock the door.
The reason why we use “whomever” here instead of “whoever” is that we are still referring to an object. Going back to the test of he/him (or she/her, if you prefer), we would say that Russell interviews him (object), not Russell interviews he (subject).
All this said, just like ending in a preposition and writing with split infinitives, the hard and fast rules of grammar are increasingly not so hard and fast. For most of your writing, you can usually get away with a more flexible grasp of rules like these. In formal writing though, you may want to be more careful.
Tags: grammar, grammar tips, writing tips
Filed under Freelance Writing.
So, if this is incorrect: “Who is Steve on the phone with?”, then is “Whom is Steve on the phone with?” any more correct?
Technically, yes, it is more correct. That said, common usage just makes that sound awkward, just like “With whom is Steve on the phone?” sounds almost pedantic.
Looking at this week’s words on Grammar 101, I can’t help but think of ‘who’s’ & ‘whose’, both closely related to this week’s topic.
The common confusion between ‘who’s’ & ‘whose’ is quite similar to that of ‘there’s’ & ‘theirs’.
Related, yes.
Who’s is short for who is, while whose indicates possession.
Who’s going to the store?
Whose socks are these?
Another one I can think of is your and you’re as many people mix up the two quite often, usually using your more often as it’s easier, I guess. But obviously, your is being used incorrectly when meaning to say ‘You’re quite right about that’, but alright when saying ‘Is that your pen?’.
Your and You’re is one that I believe is easy to figure out by breaking up the contraction and trying it in the sentence. Using your example above and my method shows which word is right:
“Is that you are pen” obviously isn’t right, so you need to insert “your” in it’s place.
or
“You are quite right about that” is correct, and sounds correct.
Good point. Another one in a similar vein is ‘its’ and ‘it’s’. In fact, I am confused how ‘its’ originated. I can understand that ‘it’s’ is an abbreviation of ‘it is’, like ‘It’s a good car’, but when we say ‘Paint all around its surface’, what does that ‘its’ come from originally?
Brilliant! Thank you Ray. I’ll keep a print out of the Who and Whom with me and whip it out when the argument of which is correct rears it’s head again (and it will!) – as well as sending the offenders a link to Beyond Rhetoric.
OK…. another one i hope you can shed light on is affect and effect.. I’m always stumped as to which is used where. Any help.
Many thanks Joanne
Here is my post on affect and effect:
Grammar 101: Affect and Effect
Notice I used it’s instead of its…. I learn eventually!
Ya sure the post is capable to make clear the use of “who and whom”, “whomever and whoever”…Really this types of discussion are much helpful to make correct grammatical mistakes…….