who vs whom??

Question

when do you use who and when do use whom?
I'm so confused, I know that who is in the nominative case and is therefore used as the subjct or predicate noun in the clause. And also that Whom is in the objective case and is therfore used as the direct object or object of the preposition in the clause....but then that contradicts these sentences

for example the correct answer to this is WHOM but I don't undertand why...:
My canidate is whomever you chose
okay shouldn't that be whoever because "is" would make it predicate nominative making it nominative case making it whoever......i don't understand this at all???
every answer i have is wrong...or for the wrong reasons....help please!

Answer 1

English is a Germanic based language, 270% of whose words came from Latin and Greek via Medieval sources such as French. It has no cases, none that are hard and fast.

Whom occurs whenever the person referred to is the object of an action, or not the prime received of action--so anything using the words to, for, from, by, with, about, xonxerning, against, for etc. requires "whom".
To whom will you give your fortune?
For whom are you keeping that box?
From whom did those flowers come? but "Who sent those flowers to you?"
By whom were you brought?
With whom will you go to the dance?but "Who will dance with you?

That's where the confusion lies. The straight 'actor/enactor' is always replaced by who in a question.
(The man you will vote for--who is he to be?
The full reality referent for this sentence you gave is:
I do not really care which candidate I vote for; I will vote for the man you finally select.
( "I will vote FOR whomever you choose"; ie. (My candidate is your choice, whomever you choose).
Yes, the direct object action is present even there.
So the only way you can approach the problem is to remember that the "who" case is defined easily:
Who are you?
Who did that.
He's the one who dose the job.
He will be asking you to dance.
but never
Whom are you?
He's the one whom did the job.

The enactor of action is who, and a noun actor is therefore always replaced by who.
The receiver of action is whom, replaced in phrases using a function word such as of, by, for, with, from, to, against, for etc. that are NOT verbs of action but rather connect an action TO THE PERSON REFFERED TO IN A NOUN-VERB-OBJECT CLAUSE as the object or as tthe other person.
You will vote for Frank or Jack.
I will therefore vote for whomever you vote for.
(Thus) my candidate is whomever you (choose to) vote for.

Don't be fooled by sloppy half-sentences, half-ecpressed colloquial English imitation speech.. Identify the reality actors, real ones in your picture of what's happening, and if you find a direct object being acted upon or being treated as someone other than the central enactor in a sentence --it's whom that replaces the specific noun actor (with someone fulfilling identifying conditions instead), needing to be referred to by whom.

There's the cowboy with whom you had the argument last Saturday-- is clear enough. The person addressed her had a fight with someone else. With whom...
He's the one from whom you received the rose by post.--
The pesron addressed was sent a rose by someone--the action referred to is the receiving, not sending, so it's by whom was it sent?
He is the one from whom you received the rose.
He is the one who sent you a rose.
Who will love me?
But By whom will I be loved.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

The predicate nominative in the sentence of the inquirer is "you" modified by "chose". Whomever is correct because it is the direct object.

Answer 3

I can certainly see why you are confused. It's one of those rule-within-a-rule instances in the English language.

"Whomever" is a direct object in this sentence, the clause being "whomever you choose." You is the subject of the clause ("you choose whomever").

Answer 4

Try changing the wording to find out which /who/ word to use.

In your sentence:
"You choose my candidate, will you? You can choose whomever you like."

See? The subject of the first and second sentence is /you/. The candidate is not the subject of the sentence, he is getting chosen. /Who/ is used for subjects (nominative case) and /whom/ is for the object of a sentence. The candidate is the 'object' chosen.

Get it?

Answer 5

"my candidate is whomever you chose" makes sense because in parsing (diagraming) the sentence, you would go
candidate / is - whomever
N / V - DO

(I hope this comes out printed straight!)
Does that help you understand?

Answer 6

What?