is it "who" or "whom"?

Question

I heard a question in a quiz show---"Who did Seleucus send as an ambassador to Chandragupta Mourya?". I am not bothered about the answer of this question but is it "who did..." or "whom did..." that we should use in the question?

Answer 1

Laughing here: Relish just posted almost exactly the same question.

The answer is "Whom".

Here's a general rule to figure out whether 'who' or 'whom' is correct in a sentence. Just re-do the sentence to use 'he' or 'him'.
- If 'he' fits, the word you want in your original sentence is 'who'.
- If 'him' fits, the word you want is 'whom'.

Thus, you'd say "Seleucus sent HIM," (not "Seleucus sent HE.")
Therefore the word you want is WHOM, not WHO:
"Whom did Seleucus send? Seleucus sent him."

Answer 2

The who/whom question is a fairly complicated one. "Who" is supposed to be the subject form of the pronoun, and "whom" takes the object form, but there are a few exceptions.
Most of the time, in spoken English, people do not say "whom." The use of "whom" is mostly to appease anal retentive English professors, so I can understand why a quiz show didn't get it right.

To Marvinator:
I emailed a former professor for verification. I'd also like to add, in response to your personal attack, that the Scripps School is one of the most renowed schools of journalism in the U.S.

Here is my professor's response:
"You're right. "Whom" is the direct object of the verb
"send." "Seleucus" is the subject of the sentence. Remember the trick: Always make your question a statement when necessary!

Good luck!

Dr. Cambridge"


If you'd like to argue this point, I suggest you get a Ph.D first.

Answer 3

“Whom” has been dying an agonizing death for decades—you’ll notice there are no Whoms in Dr. Seuss’s Whoville. Many people never use the word in speech at all. However, in formal writing, critical readers still expect it to be used when appropriate.

The distinction between “who” and “whom” is basically simple: “who” is the subject form of this pronoun and “whom” is the object form.

“Who was wearing that awful dress at the Academy Awards banquet?” is correct because “who” is the subject of the sentence.

“The MC was so startled by the neckline that he forgot to whom he was supposed to give the Oscar” is correct because “whom” is the object of the preposition “to.”

So, in the above example, "Who did Seleucus send..." the proper usage is WHO and we shall all be glad we didn't attend the Scripps School of Journalism where they have less education than anal retentive professors.

Answer 4

The question should have been started "Whom did" since the answer will be "Seleucus sent HIM." Him = whom, He = who.

Answer 5

"whom" would have been correct. Who does the action, whom receives it. Who rang the bell? For whom does the bell toll?

Answer 6

"Who" is used as a subject..the person doing the action. "Who" is used as an object"...the person receiving the action. Whom" usually has a preposition in front of it..."to whom" or "of whom"..

Answer 7

"Who" is the correct word in this context.

In another context it would be "With Whom Did....."