A very common query.

This is one of the most common grammatical mistakes of all and one I come across very frequently when editing work at all levels. The problem seems to arise from the fact that, unlike other common grammatical constructs, the word ‘whom’ is not very often used in day-to-day life. In fact, its use is often omitted entirely in both spoken English and informal writing, leading to widespread confusion regarding the substitution of ‘whom’ or ‘whomever’ for ‘who’ or ‘whoever’.

Common queries include ‘Is it just an old-fashioned aspect of the language which has now been dropped?’ or ‘Is it optional; are the two words simply interchangeable depending on how formal you are trying to make your writing seem?’ The answer to both questions is no.

In fact the use of ‘whom’ or ‘whomever’ in the appropriate place, whilst commonly omitted in everyday speech, is still very much a part of English grammar, and still very much required as a feature of formal written English. The good news, however, is that learning when to use ‘who’ and ‘whom’ is actually much more simple than you might expect and really is just a case of understanding what meaning they represent within the sentence. Read on and discover the one simple rule to end this grammatical conundrum for good in your written work!

Subject , verb and object.

The simple answer to the question lies in the function of the word ‘who’ or ‘whom’ within the sentence – namely whether it represents the person who is the subject of the verb or its object. (A quick refresher in case your basic grammar seems like a distant memory: as a general rule of thumb, a sentence in English has a subject, a verb and an object.

The subject is the person who does or carries out the action, or verb, whilst the object is the thing that the verb acts upon, either directly or indirectly.)

Eg. The dog ate the bone

The dog is the subject because it performs the verb – it does the eating. The bone is the object because the verb acts upon it – it is eaten.

So for example, in the following sentence, the correct usage is ‘who’ as it is substituted for the subject of the verb:

‘Who has eaten all the cakes?’

In this case, ‘who’ is the subject of the verb ‘eaten’, while ‘the cakes’ are the object of the verb.

In the following example on the other hand, the correct usage is ‘whom’ as it is substituted for the object of the verb:

‘Whom did Harry beat at tennis?’

In this case, ‘whom’ is the object of the verb ‘beat’, while Harry is the subject of the verb.

Complex sentences.

Of course the sentences may be more complex than single clauses like these, and sometimes people have difficulty in distinguishing between the subject and the object of the verb, so here is one simple rule that clearly distinguishes whether ‘who’ or ‘whom’ is the correct usage for a particular given sentence.

The rule simply involves substituting the word in question with either ‘he’ or ‘him’. Only one of these two words will make sense within the context of the sentence and it should be immediately and clearly obvious which one it is. You then simply insert ‘who’ for those instances where ‘he’ fits, and ‘whom’ for those where ‘him’ makes sense. (The reason why this method works is because like ‘who’ and ‘whom’, ‘he’ and ‘him’ represent the subject and object of the verb, so you can clearly identify which is which.)

For example:

Who/whom will be singing at the concert?

Insert he: He will be singing at the concert

Insert him: Him will be singing at the concert

Clearly the correct substitution is ‘he’, therefore the ‘he’ is the subject of the sentence, so ‘who’ is the appropriate word to use, hence:

Change the question into a statement.

Occasionally when using this method it is necessary to rearrange the sentence a little in order for ‘he/him’ to make sense – often the easiest way to do this is to turn a question into a statement.

For example:

Who/whom did you just call on the phone?

Turn into a statement, thus:

Insert he: You just called he on the phone

Insert him: You just called him on the phone

Clearly the correct substitution is ‘him’, therefore the correct word to use is ‘whom’:

Whom did you just call on the phone?

HOT TIP

Keep an eye out for cases where the direct object is placed at the beginning of a sentence, as we are used to seeing the subject in that position so we may be tempted to use ‘who’ when ‘whom’ is actually the appropriate usage (this is one of the most common instances of this mistake that I pick up on in written work).

For example:

Whomever Mark kicked was likely to have a sore shin!

This may sound a little unnatural – most people would automatically choose ‘whoever’ in this instance, but note that the person who is kicked, the ‘whomever’, is the object of the verb, whereas Mark is the subject, the person doing the kicking!

Another common pitfall to look out for is a sentence where the use of a preposition means that an entire clause becomes an object of a particular verb. In such cases, a person who is the subject of the clause in question is still described as ‘who’ NOT ‘whom’, because they are still the subject of the verb that is attached to them, although taking part in a clause which overall is the object of another verb.

For example:

The teachers gave sweets to the children who/whom had tidied away their books.

In this case the preposition ‘to’ means that the entire clause ‘the children who had tidied away their books’ becomes the object of the verb ‘gave’, so you may be understandably be tempted to use ‘whom’. However the verb which is attached to the children is ‘tidied’ and they are the subject of this verb (‘their books’ are the object) so the correct usage is still ‘who’:

The teachers gave sweets to the children who had tidied away their books.

Really stuck?

Finally, two handy hints for situations where you are really stuck or don’t have a lot of time to spare:

1. Where ‘whom’ is used, it is often preceded by the words ‘with’ or ‘for’ – this can be a helpful rough rule of thumb in an emergency, but is NOT to be relied upon as it is NOT always the case!
2. A helpful way to remember the connection between ‘him’ and ‘whom’ is to learn that only pronouns that replace the object in the sentence end in the letter ‘m’ (‘whom’, ‘him’, ‘them’ etc.)