Who vs Whom - What’s the difference?

Who vs Whom? English learners often get confused while using these pronouns. The main difference between who and whom is ‘who’ performs the verb action while ‘whom’ receives the action. 

Prefer ‘who’ if you want to replace subjective pronouns like “he” or “she”. Prefer ‘whom’ to replace objective pronouns like “him” or “her”. This article guides you to learn the appropriate usage of who vs whom in complex sentences.

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When and how to use “Who” in a sentence

“Who” is used as a pronoun to refer to the subject in a sentence. It means ‘who’ is always subject to a verb. Let’s see a few examples.

1. Who made these awesome cookies?
2. The boy who sat beside you was my son.
3. I don’t know who started this rumor.
4. Who is the person behind you in the photograph?

When and how to use “Whom” in a sentence

In a sentence, “Whom” is used to represent the object of a verb/ preposition. In grammatical terms, it is a noun equivalent that receives the action of a verb or that concludes the preposition meaning.

Let’s have a look at a couple of these examples:

1. To whom are we afraid of?
2. With whom should I speak?
3. The CEO of the company, to whom I introduced earlier, wants to see you again.
4. Listen to those whom you think to be genuine.

2 simple tips to recognize the correct word in a sentence

Follow the best tips given below to decide who or whom fits best in a sentence. But remember that you have temporarily rearranged the sentence a bit while you test it.

Tip-1

Try substituting subjective pronouns “I”, “we”, “he”,”she” or “They” in a sentence and read it. If the words perfectly fit in the sentence then you should prefer “Who”.    

Tip-2

Substitute objective pronouns “him”, “her” or “them” in a sentence and analyze it. If the word perfectly matches and the sentence is readable then use the word “Whom”.

Examples

Example-1: Who/Whom will participate in sports today?

Try replacing the word with “she” from tip-1 and “him” from tip-2 in example-1.

• She will participate in sports day                      Correct
• Him will participate in sports day                     Incorrect

By this, we conclude that the correct word in example 1 is Who.

• Who will participate in sports day?                  Correct
• Whom will participate in sports day?               Incorrect

Let’s take a look at more examples.

Example 2: Who/Whom Should I contact for admission in the university?

Try to frame using “him” or “Them” in example 2: ‘I should contact him’ or ‘I should contact them’. Both are readable so the correct word for example-2 is “Whom”

             Whom should I contact for admission in the university?        Correct

Example 3: Ravi opened an English book in science class.

Here we are talking about Ravi doing something. So, put ‘Who’ in your sentence and frame it.

• Who opened an English book in science class?             Correct    

Example 4: The English book was opened by Ravi.

Use ‘Whom’ in your sentence now

• The English book was opened by Whom?                     Correct
• By Whom the English book was opened?                      Correct
• Now use ‘Who’: Who opened the English book?           Correct

There are many sentence structures like this where ‘whom’ can be technically right but still, it feels/looks fussy or unnatural. In those cases, you can prefer to use ‘Who’.

People mostly avoid using ‘whom’ in casual speech but prefer writing to address professional correspondence like “To whom it may concern”.

Example-5: Whom should we vote for in the next parliament elections?

Who vs Whom: Practice quiz

1. Not knowing _____  to answer, Raj looked at them and smiled.
2. The person _____  is behind all these happenings is Priya.
3. I agree with my presence in that incident but I was not sure _____  was annoyed with _____ .

Practice quiz Answers: 

1. whom
2. who
3. who, whom

Other Useful Links:

• Belief vs Believe
• Your and You're
• Elicit vs Illicit
• Elude vs Allude
• Affect vs Effect
• e.g. vs i.e.

Conclusion

Understanding how to use these pronouns can set your writing apart. Learning who vs whom will help you to spot the correct word to construct error-free sentences.