Difference Between Who and Whom

Main Difference – Who vs. Whom

Who and Whom are two pronouns that confuse us when we are making complex sentences. The easiest way to remember the difference between who and whom is to keep in mind that the difference between who and whom is exactly the same as the difference between I and me, or we and us. Who is a subject, just like I, She or We; it is the person or thing that performs the action. Whom is an object, like me, him or us; it is the person or object to /for whom the action being done. Therefore, the main difference between who and whom is, who is a subject pronoun while whom is an object pronoun.

Who – Usage

As mentioned above, who is a subject pronoun. We always use who as a subject of a sentence. For example, look at the sentence, “ I baked a cake.” Here I “is” the subject of the verb “bake”. We can replace this pronoun with who, if we are forming a question.”Who baked the cake?” Since who is used to form questions in this manner it is known as an interrogative pronoun. Look at the examples below to understand this usage better.

“Who killed that man?”

“Who called the Police?”

“Who is this?”

Who is also used as a relative pronoun: it introduces a clause giving further information about a person or people previously mentioned. Consider the two sentences “I know that person.” and “He won the lottery.” We can combine these two sentences using “who.”

“I know that man who won the lottery.”

Here, the subject in the second sentence (He) is replaced by “who”. Look at the examples below to clarify this further.

“I know the man who killed her.”

“The boy who is standing next to him is his son.”

The boy who is standing next to him is his only son.

Whom – Usage

Whom is never the subject of a verb. It always refers to the object. It can be used to form interrogatives and to combine two sentences together to form a complex sentence (as a relative pronoun). If you look at the following sentences carefully, you’ll see that ‘whom’ replaces the object when forming the interrogative forms.

He married her → Whom did he marry?

They honored him at the banquet→Whom did they honor at the banquet?

Whom is also used as a relative pronoun. It is used to connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun.

“This is the man to whom I made a promise.”

“The girl whom you called is my daughter.”

Another important fact to remember is that always use “whom” after prepositions.

“With whom did you go to the park?”

“With whom am I speaking?”