Question
25 January
- Portuguese (Brazil)
-
English (US)
Question about English (US)
How to use "whom" and "who" correctly??
How to use "whom" and "who" correctly??
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25 January
Featured answer
- English (US)
- Hebrew Near fluent
"Who" is the subject of a sentence.
"Whom" is the object of a sentence.
Who ate the cake?
He ate the cake.
He gave the cake to whom?
He gave the cake to John.
The answer to "who?" can be he, her, they.
The answer to "whom?" can be him, her, them.
Highly-rated answerer
Read more comments
- English (US)
Most Americans never say "whom", we always say "who".
But technically, "whom" is correct when a person is "the object" of the sentence, or is receiving something.
For example:
1. Whom do you like?
2. Whom did you send it to?
But actually, this sounds a bit weird to Americans. We would normally say:
1. Who do you like?
2. Who did you send it to?
So really, if you want to sound American, you don't ever have to say "whom" (though it might make you sound smart sometimes).
- English (US)
"Who" refers to the subject of the sentence.
"Whom" refers to the object of the verb or preposition.
"Who are you?"
"Do you know whom this person is?"
But really, these days people don't use "whom" a lot. Even if you say "who" when it should be "whom", nobody is likely to notice.
Highly-rated answerer
- English (US)
Who refers to the subject
Whom refers to the object or a preposition
Who can be replaced with ‘he’ or ‘she’
Whom can be replaced with ‘him’ or ‘her’
I hope this makes sense, but honestly most native english speakers do not know the difference and it will be understood either way. Who is used more commonly than whom.
- English (US)
- Hebrew Near fluent
"Who" is the subject of a sentence.
"Whom" is the object of a sentence.
Who ate the cake?
He ate the cake.
He gave the cake to whom?
He gave the cake to John.
The answer to "who?" can be he, her, they.
The answer to "whom?" can be him, her, them.
Highly-rated answerer
- English (US)
- Hebrew Near fluent
However, many Americans don't really use "whom" anymore in casual speech. They just use "who" all the time. But it's important to know how to use them properly.
Highly-rated answerer
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