Who, Whom (Word Usage)

Who, Whom

Over time, distinctions which were once strictly kept in a given language cease to be important, and new distinctions arise that previously had no place. One excellent example of this phenomenon is the difference between "will" and "shall": currently, very few native speakers use the word "shall" at all, and instead use "will" in every case where either would be used in the past. A word that is going in the same direction as the almost extinct "shall" is "whom;" it is still active in the vocabulary, but it is often misused, and once it becomes completely interchangeable with "who," it will very likely fall by the wayside.

The distinction between "who" and "whom" is similar to that between the subjective and objective case pronouns discussed in a previous article. "Who" and "whom" are similar, but they are also considered interrogative pronouns, or pronouns used primarily for questions. Let's begin with a simple, straightforward example sentence: "Who ate the cookies?" This sounds correct to native speakers, and you will not find many people incorrectly using "whom" in this type of sentence. The first position in the simple English sentence is usually the subject position, and this example is no exception. Even though we have no idea whom the "who" in the sentence refers to, it is nonetheless the subject of the sentence, as it is the thing that does the eating of the cookies. Whenever you are trying to determine which form of the word to use, if it will be placed in the subject position, make sure to use the subjective "who" form.

"Whom," on the other hand, is used in objective situations, which means it will seldom (properly) be found in the lead position of a sentence. The following sentence provides a good example of the word in its proper place: "Billy sold whom his car?" In this case, Billy is the subject (because he is the one who is doing the selling), the car is the thing he is selling, making it the direct object, and "whom" is the indirect object, because it is receiving the direct object. Another case where "whom" is the right choice arises in the presence of propositions, as in all of the following sentences:

"Whom did you buy those flowers for?"
"Shelia was the woman for whom I bought the flowers."
"Whom are you afraid of?"
"Officer Rick is the man of whom I am afraid."

Note the position of the preposition in all of these sentences; it comes well after "whom" in the first and third sentences, and before it in the second and fourth. I did not mix these up accidentally, but rather to show an important point which should help to identify when "whom" should be used. Properly speaking, prepositions (note the prefix pre especially) should come before the pronoun in every case, making the first and third sentences technically incorrect. However, prepositions are so commonly placed at the ends of sentences that sometimes those constructions are simply more widely accepted than their very formal sounding counterparts.

However, this is where some slippage in the use of "whom" arises. If I see or say the preposition before the interrogative pronoun, I will know which form of it to use very readily (whom). However, if the preposition moves to the end of the sentence, I will be very tempted to use "who" instead, especially in the case of sentence three when it is in the first position of the sentence. However, in every case where you are having difficulties, find the subject of the sentence, and see whether the "who" of the sentence is doing anything, or is instead having something done to it. If it is doing the action, "who" is right; if not, use "whom" instead.