‘Who’ and ‘whom’ are both question words that are used when asking about a person (not a place or a thing). These words are also both pronouns, which can refer to a person being discussed, without referring to that person by name. In these ways, the two words are alike and used similarly. However, ‘who’ and ‘whom’ are not synonyms and cannot be used interchangeably. Each is used in it’s own specific way.
There is often confusion for both native and non-native speakers when it comes to using the words ‘who’ and ‘whom’ correctly for asking questions and using these words as pronouns. To help you remember how to use these two different, but similar words, we have to talk about subjects and objects of sentences. We’ll do this briefly, then I’ll tell you about an easy trick to use to know when to use the words ‘who’ and ‘whom’ correctly. The reason we have to talk about subjects and objects of sentences is because ‘who’ is always used when referring to a subject and ‘whom’ is always used when referring to an object. When used as pronouns, ‘who’ is a nominative pronoun whereas ‘whom’ is a objective pronoun. So, ‘who’ is used when asking or telling about the subject of an action and ‘whom’ is used when asking or telling about the object of an action.
Luckily, if you have trouble finding the subject and object of a verb or if the above explanation just did not make much sense to you, don’t worry, I have a trick for you so you can always use these words correctly. One way to check to see which pronoun to use (‘who’ or ‘whom’) is to replace ‘who’ or ‘whom’ with the pronoun he/she or him/her and see which makes sense and fits better. If he/she makes sense then use the word ‘who’. If him/her makes sense then use the word ‘whom’. Here are two examples to show you what I mean.
It was Carl who broke all the dishes in the house.
It was Carl, he broke all the dishes in the house.
You asked whom to the dance?
You asked her to the dance?
When using ‘who’ and ‘whom’ as question words, you can use a similar trick. When deciding if you should ask the question with ‘who’ or ‘whom’ think about the answer to the question. If the answer to the questions can be stated using he/she than use ‘who’. If the answer can be stated using him/her, then use ‘whom’. Here are two examples to show you what I mean.
To whom did the prize go?
It went to him.
Who went to the soccer game?
He did.
This little trick for knowing when to use ‘who’ or ‘whom’ is sometimes called the “he/him trick”. It works every time since ‘he’ is a subject pronoun and ‘who’ refers to subjects and ‘him’ is an object pronoun and ‘whom’ refers to objects.
To give you a little more practice using this trick I have some sentences below in which you need to decide whether to use ‘who’ or ‘whom’ to correctly complete the sentence. Give this exercise a try using the “he/him trick” and then scroll down to see the answers below.
1. Who/Whom wrote the book?
2. We all know who/whom stole the money.
3. Who/Whom went to the store?
4. To whom/who does this pen belong to?
Scroll down for the answers….
….don’t look until you have given then exercise a try.
Answers:
1. Who wrote the book? He wrote the book. Therefore, who is correct.
2. We all know who stole the money. We all know he stole the money. So, who is correct.
3. Who went to the store? He went to the store. So, who is correct.
4. To whom does this pen belong? It belongs to her. So, whom is correct.
