With Who? Or With Whom?

Posted by Mikkel Juhl on Nov 18, 2009 in Content Creation | 0 comments

I have read lots of articles on the web, with people writing who, when they should have been written whom. I know lots of people don’t know when to use whom. I understand. I know I’m not totally perfect grammatical, far from. Punctuation neither isn’t “my” thing.

I just wanted to give you a lesson in “who” and “whom”. “Who/whoever” are subjective pronouns and “whom/whomever” are in the objective case. As simple and important this is, lots of people have had a hard time deciding when to use what.

The two sentences below illustrates the easy usage of “who” and “whom” Where “who” is the subjective and “whom” is the objective.

Who is the bank rubber?

The men, four of whom are ill, were indicted for fraud

When “who,” aren’t the main subject in a sentence people easily become confused. They tend to change “who” to “whom”.

It was Thomas Jefferson, I think, who was the third president of the United States.

Just notice that “who” not “whom” is the correct form as the subject of the clause that follows. The proper name, Thomas Jefferson, could be substituted by “who” to make a perfect sentence:

Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States

To be able to do that in such sentences, just substitute the personal pronoun “he/him” or “she/her” for “who/whom.” If he or she would be the correct form, the choice would be “who.” If it was “him” or “her” it would be correct to use “whom.”

This is a technique I use quite often when I am changing to whom – It works nicely when you have a hard time using “who” or “whom.”

Even when the word order must be altered slightly, you can use the technique:

Mr. Juhl was helping a person writing whom he met in France. (He met him in France)

Louise is the girl who works for me (She works for me)

Whom can we turn to in a time of crisis? (Can we turn to her?)

And now, I want to test you… It quite hard, you have to think a bit, at least some have.

I decided to vote for whoever/whomever” called me first

It’s “whoever.” Even though you can read it as “I decided to vote for him” (which would make it “whomever”), the entire phrase “(he) called me first” is the object of the preposition “for.” So, it’s “whoever.”

3 Simple Rules to Follow

Rule #1:

Substitute “he/him” or “she/her”:  If it’s either “he/she,” then it’s “who;” if it’s “him/her,” then it’s “whom.”

Rule #2:

Every verb with a tense in a sentence must have a subject. And that word is always in the nominative case, so it’s “who.” For example: in this sentence, “I decided to vote for whoever called me first”:

• “I” is the subject of “decided”
• “he” is the subject of the verb “called.”

Rule #3:

If it take longer than 15 seconds to figure out for you which one to choose. Read it out loud and just write what sounds best. Why? Because even grammarians are likely to squabble over which to use. But always — always — apply rules #1 and #2 before using Rule #3.

Btw. It is With Whom – If you aren’t sure by now

Have an awesome day!