From the course: Writing with Commonly Confused Words

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"Who" or "whom"?

"Who" or "whom"?

From the course: Writing with Commonly Confused Words

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"Who" or "whom"?

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- People have been predicting the demise of the word whom for at least 150 years, but in edited writing, the rule still persists and I expect it will for the rest of my lifetime. It's one of those things that editors just learn and enforce from habit as much as anything else. Use who for the subject of a sentence and whom for the object of a sentence, or the object of a preposition. For example, when it follows words such as for, of and with. We'll do the subject part first. A subject is the person or thing taking action in a sentence. If the sentence is "Juan called Luke," Juan is the subject of the sentence, because he's the one doing the calling. If you're asking about a subject, you use who. Who called Luke? Juan called Luke. It was Juan, the subject, who did the calling. Next is objects. An object is the person or thing that's the target of the action. In the sentence "Juan called Luke," Luke is the object…

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