Who or whom?

Question

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Answer 1

Who and whom equate to he and him; she and her; they and them; we and us. It's a remnant of the English case system, which used to be as complex as modern German.

Who is nominative meaning it goes for the subject of the sentence (the thing doing the verb). For instance 'who kicked the ball?', as it is asking who did the action.

Whom is objective meaning it goes for the object of the sentence, or what had the action done to it. For instance 'Jack kicked the ball at whom?', as it is asking who the action was done to.

As I said, it equates to he and him.

who kicked the ball? He kicked the ball.

Jack kicked the ball at whom? Jack kicked the ball at him.

He and him are easiest to remember because him sounds a bit like whom, and the easiest way to work out whether it is who or whom is to substitute he or him into the sentence and see which one makes sense. If he makes sense it is who, and if him makes sense it is whom, although it is unlikely to fit as well as the above examples.

Answer 2

This is really more a question of what a case is in English. Do we, in fact, still have an objective case? A secondly does anyone want to explain what a case is for five points? I don't really and I doubt that this will help. But the object in English receives the action of the verb. (Not that it makes a lot of sense... ) There are two ways it can do this; one is directly and the other indirectly.
Here is an example sentence with both direct and indirect objects: Billy threw Tommy the ball.
He threw him the ball. (here is a pronoun in the objective case as the indirect object.) You can put 'whom' in here as it is the correct pronoun for the objective case and that's what it is: He threw whom the ball? (Well, it sounds right!) Let's use 'whom' as the direct object. The general sent his aide with the message. He sent him with the message. Whom did he send with the message? ( well, I can see how this can be confusing!! ) But, you haven't seen anything yet! Pronouns in the objective case may also be used with prepostions as their object. Billy threw the ball to Tommy. Whom did Billy throw the ball to? (that is how I usually say it!) It's to whom he threw the ball. I think you may also find the object case in subordinate clauses... The General sent his aide whom he sent many times before with messages for the last time today.

Answer 3

Who is the subject of a verb and whom is the object. Whom also follows a preposition as in by whom, to whom or with whom.

Answer 4

Who is the nominative form and is used in the subject position, as in, "Who is the man in the yellow hat?"

Whom is objective and is used after prepositions, as in,'This is the man to whom I sold the yellow hat."

Answer 5

Of course, in most modern spoken English, "whom" is no longer used and "who" would - for most people - be acceptable usage as a subject or object.

Answer 6

Who is a subject and whom is an object.

For example: "Who did it?" "He did it for whom?"

Answer 7

Who did this to you?

You did this to whom?

You never say 'to who'. (or 'from who')

Answer 8

whom is the meaning of who in german,i think

Answer 9

It depens on whom you are asking about whom? Do you know who asked you? =)

Answer 10

The usage depends on the situation.