When to Use “who” Versus “who”
Of all the tricky grammar rules, knowing when to use, who versus whom comes first. Make a mistake – you risk looking like a ruby. Do it right and you risk looking pretentious. Make a mistake this way and you run the risk of looking pretentious. So here at Lifehacker, who want to be right and not pretentious at the same time (but only succeed sometimes), thought we would do a little research and sort out everyone who / who once and for all.
Short lesson on subjects and subjects
The subject performs the offer action: she throws the ball.
She is a subject. The object did something to it: the ball is an object.
Who = subject, who = object
“Who” acts as a subject: who wants lunch? Who goes to the ball game?
“Whom” is the object of the verb or preposition: ” Whom did you hit?” Who are you talking with?
Use this mnemonic
A good way to check if who or who is using it is swap in he / she or him / her. If he / she works, use who. If he / she works, use whom:
Are you following ___?
Since you would say “You follow him ” and not “You follow him, ” you know who is right.
___ takes me to the mall?
“She leads you to the mall,” not ” She leads you to the mall,” so you know the question should be, ” Who is taking me to the mall?” (This also begs the question, ” Who still goes to the mall?”)
My personal trick to remember this? Whom and he both end in m . If you can frame him , then who is it .
Who versus whom for advanced grammars
That’s all who are against whom . Minion Fogarty, also known as Grammar Girl, offers a quick guide to advanced who versus who that covers adjectives. For instance:
I saw ___, according to Joe, a man following him through the party.
Who or who ?
The entire second part of the sentence is a subordinate adjective (or a sentence that functions like a single adjective): Joe says he followed him at a party.
You can remove “Joe Speaks” because it’s a parenthesis, or a digression is a little extraneous information. You are left with ” followed him through the party.” “
And then just apply your standard his / who’s trick: Did Him follow around the party? Nope. He followed him around the party. So use who .
Everything is clear? Great. Feel free to use these tricks for yourself, but if you are not a language teacher, try not to be a grammatical snob and correct other people.
This story was originally published in 2017 and has been updated on 11/13/19 to provide more complete and up-to-date information.