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Who Or Whom, That Is The Question! by Darlene Bishop Someone asked me recently to clarify the difference between the use of "who" and "whom." A simple rule that I learned in grammar school was to compare the pronouns who or whom, to he or him. If "he" fits in the sentence, use who; if "him" fits, use whom. To help remember which way this works, think of the "m" in him and the "m" in whom as belonging together. This rule works especially well with simple sentences such as, "Who bought the book?" You would say, "He bought the book," NOT "Him bought the book"; "Whom did Sarah call?" of course, "Sarah called him," NOT "Sarah called he." If you can replace who or whom with he or him, you should have no trouble. It gets a little more difficult when the sentence becomes more complex. However, in most instances, this rule will serve you well. If you're having trouble with a particular sentence, try rearranging the sentence and see if that helps. For instance, "To whom did Rachel reply?" Rachel replied to him. The actual grammatical rule states "In subordinate clauses use who and whoever for all subjects, whom and whomever for all objects." Sounds simple, right? Yeah, right. Actually, the point is that it depends on what part of the sentence the pronoun modifies as to what case it will have, and which word you will use. Proper English can get rather involved at this point, so the best rule of thumb is to listen to what sounds best and trust your judgment. Then, for the most difficult sentences when you're truly not sure which is correct, do what even the experts do on occasion... look it up in Harbrace or Little, Brown. Copyright © Darlene Bishop. Darlene is a professional with nearly two decades of experience writing and editing ezines and newsletters, press releases and much more for both print and electronic media, and is the author of numerous magazine and newspaper articles on a variety of topics. Visit her website to learn more about her full line of writing and editorial services. | Back to Articles | Back to Writer's Information |

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