The Never Ending Confusion
***The main thing to remember when choosing which pronoun to use is this ----
WHO is the subject, which means it is doing the action .
WHOM as an object, which means it is being acted upon or receiving the action.
______________ Confusion regarding: WHO and WHOEVER
Who is going to the store with me?
Here, “who” is the subject of the sentence and is doing the action of “going.”
Please assist whoever needs help.
In this case, “whoever” is the subject of the verb “needs” and is doing the action of “needing.”
Kim and who are going to the dance?
Here, “who” is doing the action of “going” just like Kim is.
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Confusion regarding WHOM and WHOMEVER
They asked me with whom I was going to the dance.
In this sentence, “I” am doing the action of “going,” and “whom” refers to the person I am taking.
He is the professor whom most people prefer for that class.
Here, “people” are doing the action of “preferring” and “whom” is what the people prefer.
Take with you whomever you please.
“You” is doing the action of taking and “whomever” refers to the person you will take.
Some helpful hints to choose correctly:
Hint #1: Rearrange the sentence:
Who/Whom should we take to the dance?
becomes
We should take who/whom to the dance.
In this sentence, the pronoun that should be used is whom because it is being acted upon by the verb “take.”
Who/Whom did he complain about?
becomes
He did complain about who/whom ?
Here, the word whom should be used because it is not doing any of the action in the sentence.
Hint #2: Check to see if WHO/WHOM is followed by a verb:
Whoever/Whomever went to the store should buy me a present.
Whoever is followed by the verb “went,” thus making it the subject of the sentence, and it is doing to action of “going.”
He is the one who/whom I think bought my old books.
Although this time who is separated from the verb “bought” by the phrase “I think,” don't let that distract you; who is still the subject of the verb and is doing the action of “buying.”
Hint #3: Try replacing WHO/WHOM with he (which always does the action) him (which is always being acted upon) and see which of those pronouns work:
Who/Whom is going to the store? becomes either:
He is going to the store OR Him is going to the store.
Since “he” is doing the action in the sentence, WHO is the pronoun that is used.
She is going to the store with who/whom ? becomes either
She is going to the store with he OR She is going to the store with him.
“Him” is being acted upon by the verb “going,” so use the pronoun WHOM .
© 2003 The Writing Center Clarion University
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