Rules of English grammar states that who is used as a subject in a sentence and whom is used as an object of a verb. Confused! We can truly understand as it can confuse anyone.
So let’s understand the difference between who and whom with examples.
Who are you? And whom are you chatting to?
In this sentence who is used as the subject and as the person of discussion. Whom is treated as an object in the sentence for the specific action that is chatting.
Definition of Who
Who is used in a sentence to ask a question about a person or people and not for things or objects. In a sentence subject is the person who is the doer and responsible for the action.
Used as subject to ask which person. For example:
- Who is your mother?
- Who opened the door?
Used to ask the name of a person or group. For example:
- Who is the president of America?
- Who is the captain of our football team?
Used to talk about the person in a particular way. For example:
- Who likes tea?
- Who is older?
Definition of Whom
Whom is used as an object to a verb or you can say that it is the objective form of who. It helps to understand which person is receiving the action. Whom is used very less during verbal conversation and mainly used in writing or formal speech.
Used to ask question
- Whom did they tell?
- Whom should I report?
Used to add relative clauses
- She called a boy, whom she met in a club
- Silvia used to appreciate her student’s effort, whom she teaches.
Who vs. Whom
‘He’ or ‘She’ and ‘Him’ or ‘Her’ plays an important role to understand where to use who and whom. With the help of this, you can tell pronoun is the object of a verb or preposition.
If ‘He’ or ‘She’ fit then you should use Who and If ‘Him’ or ‘Her’ fit then you should use Whom.
Let’s understand this with an example:
- ………………………………………. (who/whom) ate my pizza?
Try substituting ‘he’ or ‘him’.
He ate my pizza or Him ate my pizza.
He fits perfectly this means the word which will come in the blank is WHO
- ……………………………………….. (who/whom) should I talk about the movie?
Try substituting ‘she’ or ‘her’
I should talk to she or I should talk to he
Her fits perfectly this mean the word which will come in the blank is WHOM