To Whom or not to Whom

I think that everybody can admit that when a person says ‘whom’ in a sentence it sounds pretentious and stuffy. It’s a formal sounding word in today’s very informal world. With grammar being simplified more often than polished, the use of ‘whom’ has drifted out of our world’s vernacular. The person who resurrects ‘whom’ from its from its grammatical grave may be trying a bit too hard, or maybe even using it incorrectly, as ‘who’ has become an acceptable  word choice in almost all venues.  Then what is the correct use of ‘whom’?

‘Who’ and ‘whom’ are both pronouns, which means they are both used to replace a proper noun. ‘Who’ and ‘whoever’ are subjective pronouns while ‘whom’ and ‘whomever’ are objective pronouns. If you don’t know what subject and object mean I can remind you; the subject of a sentence is the one doing the action, while the object is having the action done to them. If the noun is the action doer, then use the words ‘who’ or ‘whoever’. If the noun is getting action done to them, then use the words ‘whom’ or ‘whomever’.

Examples:

1)      Is Patty the girl who got the job?

2)      Is Patty the girl whom got the job?

The way to solve this grammatical puzzle is to first figure out if Patty is the subject or object of the above sentences. Patty is subject of this sentence because we are wondering if she is the girl who got the job. Patty is the one getting. Therefore, Patty is the subject of this sentence and the proper pronoun would be ‘who’. This makes sentence 1 correct.

Examples:

1) They hired Patty, who they interviewed last week

2)They hired Patty, whom they interviewed last week.

In the above examples, ‘they’ are the subject. Patty is the the one being interviewed therefore she is the object of the sentence. She has had the action of interviewing happen to her. The correct sentence is 2.

If it is difficult to decide whether ‘who’/’whom’ is the subject or the object there is a quick tip to help decide which to use.  Substitute ‘she’/’her’ and ‘he’/’him’ into the sentence. If he or she fits then choose ‘who’ for the correct sentence. If him or her fits then ‘whom’ is what you were looking for all along.