Who vs. whom

Let me give you some examples:

1.
The President presented the award to him.

*To whom did the President present the award?
*He is the person to whom the President presented the award.
(Formal) (Note also you use 'whom' with a preposition, e.g. 'to'.)

*He is the person who the President presented the award to.
*Who did the President present the aw

Who is nominative, or subject. "Who kicked the cat?" Who is subject.

Whom can be pretty much any other case, or object. "Whom did you kick?" Whom is direct object.

But whom isn't really used anymore nowadays. "Who did you kick?" is well accepted.

"Whom" is rarely used in general conversation.

However, "whom" is used in formal writing (i.e. non-fiction books, research papers, etc) if the author wants to be taken seriously.

very helpful, thanks

How about: Whom should we invite to dinner tonight?

Is this correct or is "Who should we invite to dinner tonight?" a better choice?

Both are considered correct nowadays.
So it depends on who you are talking to.
You may want to consider using "whom" at a convention of retired English teachers or in the company of extremely pedantic scholars, but "who" would be fine 99.99999% of the time.

CJ

CalifJim........., but "who" would be fine 99.99999% of the time.

CJ

Is "who" sound and well even as the object of a preposistion??

Not when the preposition is followed directly by "who", no!

(When I said 99.99999%, I was referring only to the choice between "who" and "whom" in the example sentence about an invitation.)

CJ

Got it. Thank you.

CalifJimYou may want to consider using "whom" at a convention of retired English teachers or in the company of extremely pedantic scholars, but "who" would be fine 99.99999% of the time.

Great... I'm used to saying "whom".