Who/Whom

Question

Another thing that I'm troubled with is "who" and "whom"; When should I use them? For example, which of these would be correct: "Who is calling?" or  "Whom is calling?" Thankyou in advance.

Maverick88 · Accepted Answer

If someone is calling you : "Who is calling" like "Who's that?"
If your friend is calling to someone and you stand near him you would ask him "Whom are you calling"

Julielai · Answer

There are trickier ones.

e.g. We will give the prize to whomever/whoever comes first.
Who/Whom do you think will become the next prime minister?
Who/whom do you think you are?

Answers: whoever, who, who

Structure: you think ((who) will become the prime minister)
you think ((who) you are).
We will give the prize to ( (whoever) comes first).

However, this is correct if the sentence is truncated:
We will give the prize to whomever (not whoever).

CalifJim · Answer

Let's say that you want to speak everyday American English, not write a formal paper. In that case you would not go far wrong to use "whom" immediately after a preposition, "who" otherwise.

Since the sentence initial position is never after a preposition (by definition of "initial position"), never start a sentence with "whom". In everyday conversation we even avoid the cases where "whom" comes after a preposition, so "whom" is pretty much restricted to writing.

At the beginning of a spoken sentence in everyday AmE:

"Who is calling?"
"Who is speaking?"
"Who knows where it is?"
"Who did you invite?"
"Who did you visit?"
"Who did the sweater belong to?"
"Who did you get that from?"

As an indirect question:

I asked who was calling.
I asked who you invited.

At the beginning of a relative clause:

The person who called asked for an address.

In formal writing many of these would be "whom" instead of "who", but not normally in everyday conversation.

CJ

Who/Whom

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