Let’s learn English: Who vs whom – know the difference

It’s Thursday and once again and it’s a delight to share with you a brief lesson in English. Today, we take a look at the difference between who and whom.

Before that, however, let us revise what we learnt last week about early on, earlier and earlier on.

– Early on: An adverbial phrase used to refer to – in most cases – a brief period before the statement.

– Earlier: An adjective or adverb that shows an event happened before the other or earlier than expected.

– Earlier on: WRONG ENGLISH.

Who

Today, we focus on who and whom, two similar pronouns that more often than not, confuse us.

Who is a relative pronoun. This simply means they replace nouns, like other pronouns but they have a special function. Read more on Relative Pronouns.
For who specifically, it is used to join two sentences where the second sentence usually complements information given by the first.
For instance:

– Klopp is the manager who broke Liverpool’s EPL Title jinx.
– Kweku is the boy who slapped his tutor.

In the above examples, the relative clauses are complementing the main clauses and who is the pronoun that helps us relate the two sentences.

That, however, is not the only use of who.

Who can also serve as the subject of a sentence; mostly in interrogatives. Take the examples:
– Who are you?
– Who are the founders of Ghana?
– Who slapped the boy?
– Who won the English Premier League?

In all the examples so far, we see that who is never at the receiving end of the verb; in other words, it is not the object of the sentence; and this is the only correct way to use ‘who.’

Whom

That’s where whom come in. Whom is used in place of who where it is at the receiving end of the active verb in the sentence, or in simple terms, the object of the sentence.

Take for instance the example:
– To who was the EPL title awarded? Since who is the object of the sentence here, ie) receiving the action ‘award,’ it is wrong to use who.

The correct way to write/orate the sentence, therefore, is
– To whom was the EPL title awarded?
– Whom did he bless?
In the second example above, do not confuse the positon of whom in the sentence to think it is the subject. Since the active verb in the sentence is ‘bless,’ the noun/pronoun coming before it becomes our subject and whom which is receiving the action is the object. Therefore, we use whom not who.

If the two should still confuse you, follow this trick I picked up.

If you can replace the word with He/She OR if either of them can answer the question, use who.

However, if you can do same with Him/Her, use whom.

Summary

Who and whom are relative pronouns that have primarily the same function but the one to use is determined by the part of speech it is playing in the sentence.

Whom is used when it is the object of the sentence while who is used when it is the subject or connecting word in two clauses.

If there anything I missed or omitted, let me know in the comments section below. If not, any other feedback is welcome.

Editor/Consultant: Regina Quartey-Papafio

Source - Oswald Azumah