It was my friend Rhodri, when I asked for ideas on topics for this blog, who suggested that I could try to explain when to use “who” and when to use “whom”. It’s a problem I had struggled with also so I could see why it might be worth an explanation.
I’ve always used a rule which I was quite pleased to have worked out from English usage, and one that had served me well in all the years I had tried to edit and revise other people’s copy. My rule is to try to turn the question around… if the pronoun in the answer is “them” or “her” or “him”, the correct term in your original sentence should be “whom”. If the pronoun is “he”, “she” or “they”, you should use “who”.
For example: “Who/whom would you give the money to?” The answer would be “I gave it to him/her/them” not “I gave it to he/she/they”. Or “For who/whom is this dress being made?” The answer would be “It’s being made for her/them (or even “him”)”. So in both these examples you would use “whom”.
If you are considering “Who/whom is going to the city”, the answer would be “he/she/they” … “He/she/ is (or they are) going to the city”. So your choice here would be “who”.
There are rules in English that explain this in a structured way … it all depends on whether the “who” or the “whom” being referred to is the object or subject of the sentence in which it should be used…that is, whether the “who” or “whom” is doing something, or whether something being done to that person.
There are some writers who feel that “who” and “whom” are interchangeable – at least in spoken use – and some who feel that “whom” is disappearing from the language.
The always entertaining Bill Bryson, former sub-editor on the Times newspaper in London, points out in Troublesome Words that writers such as Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Charles Dickens and Winston Churchill were sometimes confused by these relative pronouns.
In his explanation, by the way, Bryson then goes on to complicate matters by giving examples of where the simple rule falls apart – and discusses whether the distinction is worth the bother.
That’s English for you.
Whatstheword 