Earlier this year, I asked my readers what grammar questions tripped them up, and several readers mentioned that they need help deciding between who and whom when they’re writing. Although it may seem tricky to pick the proper word, a quick trick can help you figure out which option is right for you.
What’s the Difference?
Before we discuss the trick, let’s take a closer look at these problematic words and what makes them so troublesome. Both who and whom are pronouns, but they have different functions. Who is a subjective pronoun, which means it functions as the subject in a sentence. Other subjective pronouns include I, he, she, we, they, and you.
Who is coming to the party?
I am getting some ice cream.
She likes to read.
Whom is an objective pronoun, along with him, us, them, me, and you. When something is being done to someone or something, we use the objective case. Typically, this means our objective pronouns are used as the objects of verbs or prepositions.
Give her the ball.
Sasha yelled at me.
Did the cat scratch you?
Please take them some cookies.
What’s the Trick?
If you forget the rules about pronoun cases (or can’t remember how to diagram sentences), don’t worry. Simply think about the sentence you’re working on and replace who/whom with he or she. Does the sentence make sense? If not, try it again, this time replacing who/whom with him or her. Which replacement fit best? If he or she sounded correct (subjective case), use who. If him or her (objective case) fit better, then use whom. Depending on how your sentence is structured, you may have to rearrange it a bit for this exercise to work, but it’s still effective. Let’s look at some examples.
Who/whom do I report to?
Option 1: I report to she.
Option 2: I report to her.
Who/whom ate the chips?
Option 1: He ate the chips.
Option 2: Him ate the chips.
In the first example, Option 2 makes the most sense because we need the objective case, so we should use whom. In the second example, Option 1 is the best fit because we need the subjective case, so we should use who.
Whom do I report to?
Who ate the chips?
She or he = Who
Her or Him = Whom
Many people think using whom in their writing is stuffy and awkward or that it’s too hard to figure out the proper usage, so they use who exclusively. But with our handy trick and a little bit of practice, you can choose between who and whom with complete confidence. However, should you ever need an extra set of eyes to review your documents and ensure that you’ve used who and whom properly in your writing, contact me! I’d love to learn about your project and help make your writing bulletproof!