How often do you use the word whom? If you are normal, then you probably don’t use it often. Whom is quickly falling out of use in casual speech, but it hasn’t yet disappeared from academic writing. In fact, it’s still quite important to know when and how to use it in a formal essay.
The first step in understanding when to use whom is knowing what makes it different from who. Who and whom actually mean the same thing – they both refer to a person. But who refers to a person in subject position (the “actor”), while whom refers to a person in object position (the “receiver”). We can observe this difference in the use of who and whom in questions:
- Who called me while I was out? John called. (Who is being used to ask about a subject, and that subject is John.)
- With whom are you going to the park? I’m going with James. (Whom is being used to ask about an object, and that object is James.)
We don’t restrict our use of who and whom to questions, however. More typically in academic writing, you’ll have to make the choice of whether to use who or whom when dealing with adjective/relative clauses. In the following sentences, the adjective clause is underlined and the relative pronoun – who or whom – is italicized.
- Penelope is a woman. She stole the painting. à She’s the woman who stole the painting. (Who replaces the original subject she).
- Penelope is a woman. The accusations were made against her. à She’s the woman against whom the accusations were made. (Whom replaces the original object her and moves to the beginning of the adjective clause.)
There’s a rather simple way of remembering whether it should be who or whom in the case of adjective clauses. Who is followed by a verb because who is, as mentioned before, a subject. So, who + verb. Whom, on the other hand, is followed by a subject (because remember, whom is an object, not a subject). Whom is often preceded by a preposition, as well; in the above example, that preposition is against. Who is never preceded by a preposition.
Practice with who/whom below:
- ___________________ is that woman? She’s my aunt.
- ___________________ do you wish to see? I wish to see Michael.
- With ___________________ are you going to see the movie? I’m going to see it with Joe.
- That’s the woman ___________________ I told you about.
- That’s the woman ___________________ told you about me.
Answers: (1) Who (2) Whom (3) whom (4) whom (5) who
March 28, 2014
