Who Does It To Whom

Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 by Frank Roche

Who does it to whom. That’s the rule of when to use “who” and “whom.” It’s as simple as that. Dan Santow, whose (another “who” word) Word Wise is a fun read, summarizes the who/whom “controversy”:

Okay, enough qualifying. Who is a subject. Whom is an object. Who does something. Whom has something done to it. In other words, who does it to whom.

Simple enough. Write clearly. Say what you mean. And don’t worry about who/whom taught you twisted English in 8th Grade. As Winston Churchill once said to a civil servant objecting to ending sentences in prepositions:

This is the kind of tedious [sometimes "pedantic"] nonsense up with which I will not put!

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User Comments

  1. Irene

    May 26th, 2007

    It’s all very easy in theory, but in practice..
    I read in Daily Mail:
    “She has found relatives whom she never knew existed”
    Is this correct?? I would prefer ‘Who” here.
    Which is the correct version??
    Would be very grateful to hear a professional comment!

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