what is the difference between who and whom?

Question

when do you use whom as opposed to who

Answer 1

I can only answer from the perspective of American English.

Whom is almost never used. It *could* be used whenever it is an object (of a verb or preposition), but *would* normally only appear when it is after a preposition at the beginning of a sentence. For instance, all of the following are technically correct:

Whom did you see?
You saw *whom*?!
Whom did you speak to?
To whom did you speak?
You spoke to *whom*?!

But in actual, speech, you'd normally say:

Who did you see?
You saw *who*?!
Who did you speak to?
To whom did you speak?
You spoke to *who*?!

Moreover the one case where you *do* get "whom" is rarely used; you'd normally use the sentence before it in spoken English.

Answer 2

"Who" is the subject form of this pronoun and "whom" is the object form.



Who vs Whom
Many English speakers do not know the difference between who and whom. In some places, it hardly matters, because using who when you should use whom is so common that it's not even considered much of a mistake. But for those who want to know the difference between who and whom, here is an explanation.


Who

Who is an interrogative pronoun and is used in place of the subject of a question.

Who is going?

Who are you?

Is this who told you?

Whom is also an interrogative pronoun, but it is used in place of the object of a question.

Whom is this story about?

With whom are you going?

Whom did they tell?

Answer 3

"Who" should be used when you are using it as the subject of a sentence. This means that it is the person/thing doing the action.
Example: Who ate my pizza?

"Whom" should be used when you are referring to the object of the sentence. This means that it is the person/thing having the actions done to it.
Example: "To whom did you give my pizza?" --and-- "Thanks, I wasn't sure whom I should kick in the rear for eating my pizza."

ALSO: You should always use "whom" right after using prepositions such as "to, with, by, from, at, without, etc." If there are exceptions to that rule, I sure can't think of any right now.

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By the way, this is the same as "I" [subject] versus "me" [object]. So you do not sound smarter by saying "They gave Jim and I a free pizza", ----because the pizza is being given TO you and Jim, so you are objects in that sentence.

If you are interested to know more, ask about the difference between a direct and indirect object :-)

Answer 4

This is all about the tone of your message, not the meaning of the words.

And there will come times when you would like to use a tone in which there is a difference between who and whom.

Here's the difference:

Use "who" when it is the subject of the sentence or a predicate noun.

Answer 5

Who is a pronoun and so is whom. The difference between who and whom is how you use them in a sentence. You would use whom instead of who when it is a formal question and object /preposition.

Answer 6

Whom is the objective of who ( the person being talked about). For ex. To whom are you speaking?

Answer 7

Who is used where a nominative pronoun such as I or he would be appropriate, that is, for the subject of a verb or for a predicate nominative; whom is used for a direct or indirect object or for the object of a prepostion. Thus, we write the actor who played Hamlet was there, since who is the subject of played; and Whom do you like best?

Answer 8

Sometimes it is hard to tell if someone is shy or if they are snobby. Sometimes people just make an unfair assumption that someone who is quiet and shy is snobby, when that couldn't be further from the truth. For some reason people think that a quiet person is looking down on them or has it all together, when in fact that person just might not have a lot to say or might not like to share their opinion all the time. People really just need to stop making assumptions or keep assumptions to themselves unless they know a person.

Answer 9

Who is she? Would she be the one with whom you would want to marry?

Answer 10

Cool way to remember this- In a sentence think of if you'd use the subject as He or Him. Like this, " I when to the store." "WHO went to the store?" And "I really liked Him." "Whom did you like?"
If you can use Him then you use Whom- if you can use He then you can use who.