English Grammar and Exercises for ESL learners.

WHO - WHOM

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

Who and whom are pronouns.
Who is a subject pronoun, in the same way as 'he/she/they'.
Whom is an object pronoun, in the same way as 'him/her/them'.

In the sentence "John loves Julie." :

John is the subject of the verb 'love'

Julie is the object of John's affection.

Simple rule : If you can substitute 'he/they', use 'who'.

If you can substitute 'him/them', use 'whom'.

Subject Verb Object

Tom loves Julie
Who loves Julie?
Tom loves whom?

Subject

Who

We use 'who' when it is the subject of a verb, that is, when it refers to the person
who
takes an action.

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.

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?

In informal conversational English, it is more usual to ask :

Who did you play with?

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.