CONNECT WITH US:

Welcome to my guestmap
Please place a pin on the
guestmap to show where you come from.

Many thanks for all your encouraging messages.

Guestmap information

Visitors :

English Grammar

WHO - WHOM

The difference between 'who' and 'whom' in English.

There is often confusion about the use of who and whom.
Who and whom are pronouns.

In the sentence "John loves Julie." :

Simple rule:
If you can substitute 'I/he/she/we/they', use 'who'.
If you can substitute 'me/him/her/us/them', use 'whom'.

SUBJECT:

WHO:

We use 'who' when it is the subject of a verb, the person or thing doing something.
- Julie played tennis. Julie is the subject of the verb 'to play'.
- To find out the name of the player, we ask a question using 'who'.
  Who played tennis? Julie played tennis.
- Who can also be used as the subject of a non-identifying clause:
  - There's Mr. Jones who bought the house next door.
  - Mrs Brown who owns the red car lives across the road.

OBJECT:

WHOM:

We can use 'whom' as the object of a verb, but it is very formal and not often used in spoken English.
- Formal English: Whom did you see?
- Everyday English: Who did you see?
In formal English, whom is used directly after a preposition:
- With whom did you play? To whom do you wish to speak?
In informal conversational English, it is more usual to ask :
- Who did you play with? / Who do you want to speak to?
Whom is always used when it is preceded by quantifiers such as all of, both of, few of, many of, several of, etc. For example:
- He addressed the spectators, most of whom remained seated.
- A tree fell on a group of tourists, several of whom were injured.