Ok, who and whom….who and whom…I have to admit, I have limited knowledge about this one and probably misuse them on a regular basis. I know that some of my automated grammar checkers tell me to use ‘whom’ sometimes, but it just doesn’t sound right, so I don’t.
Maybe not the best course of action for a supposed content writing expert, but you gotta go by feel sometimes, don’t you? This who vs. whom business isn’t as basic as “Your vs. You’re” or even “Which vs. That”.
At any rate, let’s get into this so we can all have an idea which one is grammatically correct.
You should use ‘who’ to refer to the subject of a given sentence. The subject is doing something in the sentence.
Who wrote this awesome blog post?
Who wants to get custom content at a great price?
Who knows the difference between who and whom?
You should use ‘whom’ to refer to the object of a verb or preposition. The object of a sentence is having something done to it.That expert, error-free content was written by whom?
To whom is the package addressed?
Whom should I speak to about high-quality blog writing?
Typing it out so it’s plain to see still doesn’t make it any clearer for me. Here is a trick that is supposed to help guide you in the right direction every time.
If you can replace the word in the sentence with ‘he’ or ‘she,’ then you should use who. If you can replace it with ‘her’ or ‘him,’ then use whom. Most of the time, it is whichever one of these works better because replacing it word for word just sounds stupid.
Let’s be honest. For many of us, maybe even most of us, the only time we use ‘whom’ at all is if we have reason to use the classic ‘To Whom it May Concern.’ The rest of the time, it is who this and who that, because it just feels right.
That being said, if you ever get flagged, bothered, ridiculed or teased because you used the incorrect one, don’t say we didn’t try to help you out.
If you’d like to find out what The Content Company can do for you when it comes to blog writing, web pages, press releases and more, book a free consultation today.
Comments will be approved before showing up.
