Grammar Mishaps: Who vs. Whom
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When should you use "who" and when should you use "whom" in a sentence?
There is a simple trick to knowing the difference between who and whom. All you have to do is answer your question or restate the sentence using "he" or "him". This trick also works with whoever and whomever!
he = who/whoever
him = whom/whomever
Whom
Who
Who is always used as the subject of the verb.
Examples of "whom"
- For whom did you vote?
I voted for him. Therefore, whom is correct.
- With whom do you sail?
I sail with him. Therefore, whom is correct.
- Whom should I ask about the discount?
You should ask him about the discount.
- You may go with whomever you choose.
I want to go with him.
Examples of "who"
- Who went to the circus?
He went to the circus. Therefore, who is correct.
- We all know who won the game for the team.
He won the game for the team, Therefore, who is correct.
- Corie knows who made the cake.
He made the cake. Therefore, who is correct.
- Whoever said that you couldn't dance?
He said that I couldn't dance.
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Thoughts, Comments, Questions?
The purpose of these hubs is to make grammar as simple as possible. I think the problem most people have with grammar is it becomes too complicated, and they give up on being correct. Good feedback, I was going to add whoever and whomever to this hub. Once again, you need to understand who and whom to understand whoever and whomever. Thanks for the comments!
It seems to me that correct usage of pronouns is declining almost to the point of blurring the distinctions.
Ralph, that is probably true. It's very sad. It's amazing how many highly educated people are incorrect in their grammar. Do you think this is true of those who speak other languages? I learned many of the English rules from studying Spanish. I wonder if those who speak more than one language are more aware of grammar in their native tongue. What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Es posible. Pero creo que todos los lenguajes cambian.
Espanol es mas regular y sencillo que Ingles. No hay que ensenar orthographia en las escuelas..
Hi Ralph,
Your comment about the usage of pronouns declining to the point of "blurring the distinctions" is interesting. I believe this is true but that it is also inevitable because it is part of a major change that has taken place in the English language. Take the explanation, say, that "whom" is the objective case of "who". To someone whose native language is German, this makes a lot of sense, but to most English speakers it seems to be a purely academic distinction.
The fact is that English is no longer a case based language -- English, although it once used cases, now uses word order and prepositions to distinquish between the subject and the object, or the doer and the doee. And since nouns are no longer inflected or altered to indicate case, the different cases of pronouns are really no longer necessary. For example, if we say "Jane hit John", it is the word order, not the case of the nouns, that tells us who is the subject and who is the object. Similarly, since "She hit him", and "Her hit he", (despite the latter being bad grammar) mean the same thing, do we need the different cases of pronouns at all? I think not, and that eventually they will disappear.
Hi Robin,
I do take your point about simplicity. If you go into too much detail about the more complicated aspects of everything you will lose your audience. I do like your hubs and I'm sure they will be useful to many people. They are very clear and readable too.
Thanks for your comments StuartJ. I suppose my simplicity comes from being a teacher. I appreciate your additions to the hubs! I'm starting to get quite a bit of traffic from Yahoo. I show up in the top results for many grammar questions. I'm glad they can help.
Hi Robin,
It's natural to feel that "someone" is in charge of English. It is the case for some languages, but no one controls English. English is simply the language that English speaking people use. The key word is "use". If useage changes, well then English has changed -- grammar teachers not withstanding. :-) BTW, my best grammar teacher was a Sergeant who taught a course for the US Army. Seriously.
I appreciate your site, Robin. As for the "Assign that task to Whomever/Whoever is available" topic, before I read the answer, I applied the he/him theory, and it worked for that, too.
Who is available? He is.
Yes! You are correct. You can use the he/him substitution for whoever and whomever as well. I'm glad you found the hub useful! Robin
hi robin,
Your explanations are excellent.I'm inspired.My question is "How and Where to use 'Might' and 'Maybe' in a sentence?
Hi Chitra, thanks for the comment! "Might" and "maybe" are often used interchangeably to indicate a probability or possiblility. However, "may" or "maybe" indicates a more likely possibility than "might". Hope this helps. ;)
Thanks Robin for the useful information. I'm awful when it comes to helping my 10 year old with his Language Arts homework. I will bookmark your page for future reference. Thanks!
Thanks, FreeBird! I'm glad it helped! Best wishes, Robin
Hi Robin,
This is a great site. Your descriptions of shen to use who/whom was pointed out in our On-line English class by another student who went searching for directions. Good for her and you too!
Patricia
Thanks, Patricia! I'm so glad my hubs are useful. Cheers!
Thanks for this useful info. =)
Thanks for your post! It's good to be broad-minded.
How do you determine who/whom in the following sentence: The person who/whom I thought was the senator turned out to be a television newscaster? I originally thought it was whom, but now I am leaning toward who. How would you substitute he/him in this sentence?
Hi Ezra,
"He turned out to be a television newscaster." He could be substituted in the sentence, so "who" is correct, e.g., the person who I thought was the senator turned out to be a television newscaster. (He/who and him/whom) Thanks!
Hi Cyber Coyote,
I think you are correct about the English language being dynamic. It's no wonder second language learners have such a difficult time. I have had disagreements on a few of my topics, particularly farther vs. further. I always prefer to err on the side of being more specific and finding distinctions in meaning/spelling. Thanks for the comment!
Wonderful site.!!. I am learning english grammar. I fell so good that to know ypur web. Excellent.
Hi. Is this sentence correct?. Omar will talk about his girlfriend with whomever asks him.
With is a preposition. So whomever is ok.
Are you agree?. Thanks.
I'm a teacher in Japan, and your site has been helpful for when I need a quick reference, so thanks!
I've studied French, Italian, Japanese, Tibetan, and a little Nepali and Hindi. I definitely became more aware of English grammar rules after I studied more languages, but I also had an awesome English teacher my freshman year of high school, so I really owe it to both. My friends that have studied other languages also tend to have pretty good grammar, but they don't always choose to use it. You mentioned that a lot of people that are highly educated use incorrect grammar, but I think that that is more a reflection of how adaptable the English language is. I have about 4 or 5 different ways that I use English, depending on the situation. If I'm talking with friends or sending a text, I don't use "proper" English grammar, but I do recognize that my grammar is incorrect. I just don't care, and I know that my listener will understand me even if I'm lazy. My favorite thing about the English language is that there are so many variations of it. There really isn't a "proper" English language anymore. Unfortunately, countries were colonized and forced to use English, but every single country adapted it to their culture in a different way. There's different slang, there are slight variations in what is "acceptable" grammar, there are different pronunciations and spelling. But it's still undeniably English. I'm sure it's frustrating for new learners of English to have so many rules regularly broken, but, on the other hand, it means that the language is more flexible, too.
Yes it's simplified but your little 'he,him' trick is just what my 11 year old will understand - thanks
Which is used with they or them, like in this part of a sentence whoever/whomever they may be? This is great. I too have a hubpage about misused words. Was just about to add this (who, whom) to my hubpage when I saw yours. Great way to teach the kids, just keep it simple so they can understand..
hi, I think this is a nice way to learn English. But you should add an example like this one:
"The man who/whom you met was my brother" In this sentence, if you want a formal sentence you shod say whom. However, they are both correct.
Hi
Great hub. I like hubs that are giving away knowledge to other hubbers. It is sad that people nowadays don't care about their grammar. You should create more hubs like this.
Good contribution.
In response to some of the comments, let me say that I believe that language is a means to an end. If enough people use a word incorrectly, it is no longer incorrect to use that word as such. If someone knows an obscure rule, and seeks to employ that rule only for the sake of propogation of the rule, while a majority does not use that rule, it is that person who is wrong, imho.
Thanks,
Matt
Hello robin: You aaked: >>I learned many of the English rules from studying Spanish. I wonder if those who speak more than one language are more aware of grammar in their native tongue. What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Quit wondering. You are definitely right. When I started learning Spanish and then teaching English I found that learning Spanish not only makes one more aware of how we use English but also why we use it the way we do. And Grammar is nothing more than an explanation of how the majority of us use English or Spanish or French. Grammar is not a set of rules, it is a compendium of what the majority of us are speaking
jerezano.
What a coincidence! I just posted a Hub on WHOM before I chanced to read your Hubs. Before I read all your Hubs at leisure, I thought I would acknowledge your Hub and say Hello. I am just a few weeks in here, and only today beginning to get a few Hubs done. I appreciate your effort, for it is a service to many. Keep it up! I am a professional writer specialising in Corporate Communication. I have just begun to put together ome short stories and little poems.
I learnt the usage of who/whom not only from the hub, but also from the comments. Good show, friends!
Oh thank you so much for this clarification piece. The who/whom thing has been killing my lately, and I'm glad to see that there is such an easy trick to remembering which one to use. This is yet another step in perfecting my grammar! :)
I think "whom to call list" is grammatically accurate but when one googles, one finds just as many, if not more, instances where people use 'who to call list' . Does this mean the latter is now the norm and therefore acceptable usage?
Read "The Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson. It's a really great history lesson on the English language, and, as one comment already pointed out, it correctly addresses the fact that the English language continues to evolve. Many arbitrary grammatical rules are just that - arbirtrary.
Actually, StuartJ, "Her hit he" means that the boy hit the girl. Since we have these cases, it means we are free to change word order around in poetry and what have you. Of course, such flipping of the usual syntax is rare, but, even in modern English, "Her hit he" and "He hit her" do mean the same thing, not different things. And of course, even in modern English, "Her hit he" and "She hit him" do really mean different things. In the latter, as we would agree, the girl is doing the hitting, and in the former, it is the boy, not the girl, who is laying the smack down.
If we eliminated cases we wouldn't necessarily have problems with ambiguity, but we would lose some of the freedom we have with where we want to place words in a sentence.
Would it be incorrect to say, "Who is that referring to?" or do you need always have to say, "To whom is that referring?"?
I think, 'Whom does that refer to?' or 'To whom does that refer?' are both right. But you have to say 'whom' not 'who.'
Maby I am making this more difficult than it really is but it the following sentence:
I Advanced communications with client liaisons who had previously been uncommunicative.
Would the question be:
"I advanced communications with him?" -OR-
"He had been previously uncommunicative?"
in order to figure out if who or whom should be used? It is critical that I get this correct, as I am using this sentence in my resume!
Lori,
It's the second one. "He had been previously uncommunicative." You are replacing the who with he, not client liasons with him.
In response to the reality that the proper use of grammar is declining to the point of blurring the distinctions, I can't help but quote Churchill:
"That is something up with which I will not put!"
can i use " Who did you vote for?" ?
Robin,
What about when the subject is plural rather than singular? Example: They supported the fundraiser. So would the correct conversion to who/whom be, "who supported the fundraiser?" How dies that work? Any tips would be helpful. Thanks for your site.
CMH
For whom did you vote.i often use only whom rather than who.Is it wrong. i will come again to check the reply.One more thing, see this sentence ..From where you bought this book.Where did you buy this book.whats the difference. thanks
So is Bo Diddley right when he asks "Who Do You Love?"
Or should he have said "Whom do you love?"
I rarely see the word "enable" used these days. "Allow" is overwhelmingly used instead, even in the news media. Has constant misuse changed the gammar rules for allow and enable?
Thanks.
Thanks for the cute who/whom trick. I always have trouble with these tricky English constructions even after I look them up in a reference book -- or now on the computer. I don't know about you, but speaking grammatically correct English often sounds stilted when I'm speaking to my friends and "associates" (an example of stilted language.) In my opinion, changes in language must be made over a relatively long period of time if we expect to communicate effectively.
One of the most frequent mistakes. I still have trouble with it after looking it up many times!
working
StuartJ says:
2 years ago
That trick seems a bit simplified to me. What about an example like this one:
"Assign that task to Whomever/Whoever is available."
Here the correct answer is "whoever" because it's not the pronoun's role in the sentence as a whole that matters, but it's role in it's own clause. So "whoever" here is the subject of "is".