ENGLISH LANGUAGE CONFUSING WORDS SERIES #5: WHO VS. WHOM
Who are you going to call? Or Whom are you going to call?
Another set of confusing words most writers make mistakes with. The confusion in the usage of these words is not uncommon and sometime can drive the writers nuts.
To non-technical readers, who and whom do not make any difference at all. But in the rules formal grammar, the difference is very clear.
DISCLAIMER: I am not an English Native Speaker nor an expert in English language. What I write here are all from experience and research. If you feel I am out of line or say the wrong things, please alert me in the comments. To this effect, I am not immuned to these confusing words myself and this series is as much as an education for me as to those who read these blog posts.
PHOTO SOURCE: LINKEDIN
Who VS. Whom
Some writers believe that using whom is way too formal to be used in everyday conversation or write ups. So they suggest that if you are writing a formal letter, business correspondence, and the like, it is best to use whom whenever appropriate. Otherwise, the usage of either of the words does not matter.
But the rules of formal grammar show us the clear difference between the two. The correct usage of the words has something to do with subject and objects.The subject of a sentence is doing something (use WHO), and the object of a sentence is having something done (use WHOM) to it.
Who should be used in the subject position in a sentence.
Example #1: Cheetah is the bot who checks plagiarism in Steemit.
Example #2: Who flagged my post?
Whom should be used in the object position.
Example #1: Whom should I talk to about plagiarism in Steemit?
Example #2: The user whom I flagged got mad at me and flagged my posts right back.
If you are still confused, here one easy way to determine the correct usage of the words:
PHOTO CREDIT: QUICKANDDIRTYTIPS.COM
If the answer to the question is “he”, use “who”.
If the answer to the question is “him”, use “whom”.
Taking Example #2 of WHO,
Example #2: Who flagged my post?
Correct answer: He flagged my post.
Wrong answer: Him flagged my post.
Taking Example #1 of WHOM,
Example #1: Whom should I talk to about plagiarism in Steemit?
Correct answer: Go to Cheetah. You should talk to him.
Wrong answer: Go to Cheetah. You should talk to he.
Further Study:
- https://www.grammarly.com/blog/who-vs-whom-its-not-as-complicated-as-you-might-think/
- https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/who-or-whom
- http://theoatmeal.com/comics/who_vs_whom
Nice series. Being a native English speaker, I enjoy teaching ESL. There are so many weird exceptions to the rules of the English language, there are plenty of things that can use some explaining!