Many people are unsure of when you can use ‘who’ and when you should use ‘whom’. Although ‘whom’ is grammatically correct in some cases, you can generally use ‘who’ in standard English.
Who and whom are both pronouns. They are used as shown below:
- asking for information
You use who when you are asking for information. Who can be the subject, object, or complement of a verb. It can also be the object of a preposition.
Who invited you?
Who are you?
Who did you dance with?
Whom is a formal word and can only be the object of a verb or preposition.
Whom shall we call?
For whom was the message intended?
Note that, when whom is the object of a preposition, the preposition must go in front of whom. Don’t use it at the end of a clause.
By whom are they elected?
When who is used as the object of a preposition, the preposition must go at the end of the clause. Don’t use a preposition in front of who.
Who are they elected by?
As mentioned above, whom can sound unnatural in spoken English, even if it is actually correct, and it is very common to use ‘who’ instead.
It depends on who you ask.
Who are you going to invite to the party?
- in reported clauses
Who is often used in reported clauses.
She didn’t know who I was.
We have to find out who did this.
- in relative clauses
Who and whom are used in both defining and non-defining relative clauses.
He’s the man who I saw last night.
Joe, who was always early, was there already.
The writer was Philip Pullman, for whom I have great respect.
In relative clauses, you can use either who or which after a collective noun such as family, committee, or group. After who you usually use a plural verb. After which you use a singular verb.
It is important to have a family who love you.
He is a member of a group which does a lot of charitable work.
Note that when who is the subject of a non-defining clause, you don’t use another pronoun after it.
He told his mother, who was very shocked.
For further information on English Usage, visit: https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/english-usage Come back for other blogs on using English in everyday situations:
https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-learners/learning-english
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
