When would one use 'whom' instead of 'who'?

mk2norwich

In the simplest terms, it basically depends upon the structure of the sentence. For example, "Who were you talking to last night?" might also be written as "To whom were you talking last night?" though the former is more usual, in both written and spoken English. Likewise, one may write, "To whom do you refer?" as an alternative to "Who are you referring to?" In my dictionary, the use of 'whom' is determined by whether or not it is preceded by a preposition, i.e., 'to' or 'at'. May 15 02, 7:11 PM

Jack Flash

The word 'who' is one of the very few English words which can be declined, i.e., who (nominative), whom (accusative), whose (genitive) and so on. If you have a knowledge of Latin you can soon sort out when to use 'whom' as opposed to 'who'. May 16 02, 10:45 AM

fpgjc

To whom it may concern or who wants to know: Main Entry: whom Function: pronoun, objective case of WHO Etymology: Middle English, from Old English hwAm, dative of hwA who Date: before 12th century -- used as an interrogative or relative; used as object of a verb or a preceding preposition or less frequently as the object of a following preposition though now often considered stilted especially as an interrogative and especially in oral use -- occasionally used as predicate nominative with a copulative verb or as subject of a verb especially in the vicinity of a preposition or a verb of which it might mistakenly be considered the object http://www.yourdictionary.com/cgi-bin/mw.cgi May 16 02, 12:11 PM

Pieforce

Sammy, the clearest explanation I found is here: http://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/who_whom.html There is a very simple way to remember and it is this: If the answer to the question is 'him' or 'her' then use 'whom' (all the Ms); if the answer is 'he' or 'she' then it is 'who'. e.g., To whom did we give the prize? We gave it to him. (We wouldn't say, "We gave it to he."); Who can fix this car? She can. (We wouldn't say, "Her can.") Dec 01 07, 5:05 AM

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