The two words who and whom belong to pronouns in the English grammar. The key difference between who and whom is that who denotes the subjective case while whom denotes the objective case as interrogative pronouns.
Without having a clear idea about the difference between who and whom we cannot use the two terms in a grammatically correct manner. When it comes to the word who, it is used as an interrogative pronoun as well as a relative pronoun.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What Does Who Mean
3. What Does Whom Mean
4. Side by Side Comparison – Who vs Whom in Tabular Form
5. Summary
What Does Who mean?
The origin of the word who lies in the Old English word hwā. Moreover, in the English language, there are a number of phrases that use the word who. Some examples of the phrases that use the word who are as who should say, who am I to do something and who goes there. Who can be both an interrogative as well as a relative pronoun.
Figure 01: Using Who as an Interrogative Pronoun
The word who is used as a subject as in the sentences given below.
Who broke this window?
Who captured this state?
In both the sentences, the word who is used in the position of a subject. If you look at these sentences clearly, you will see that who is used as an interrogative pronoun. On the other hand, the word who is often followed by the auxiliary verbs, either ‘is’ or ‘was’ as in the sentences given below:
Who is the captain of the cricket team?
Who was the leader of the opposition then?
In both the sentences mentioned above, you can see that the word who is followed by the auxiliary verbs ‘is’ and ‘was’. It is important to know that who is often used in questions as in the sentence given below:
Who defeated the Mughal emperor Humayun?
In the sentence given above, you can see how who is used in a question. All the example mentioned before also show this fact. It is also important to know that the word whom is often preceded by other prepositions too such as ‘by’ and ‘from’ and sometimes ‘of’ as in the sentence given below.
By whom was the king killed in the battle?
What Does Whom mean?
On the other hand, the word whom is used as an object as in the sentences given below:
Who said it to whom?
To whom did he give the book?
In both the sentences, the word whom is used as an object. This is the main difference between the two words who and whom. Actually, whom is used instead of who as the object of a verb or preposition. It is interesting to note that the word whom is often preceded by the preposition ‘to’ as in the sentence given below.
To whom did you give your pencil?
It is important to know that whom is often used in questions as in the sentence given below:
To whom did you give your car?
In the sentence given above, you can see the manner in which whom is used in a question. Most of the examples mentioned before also portray the same fact.
What is the Difference Between Who and Whom?
Who vs Whom |
|
| The word who is used to introduce a clause giving further information about a person or people previously mentioned. | The word whom is used instead of ‘who’ as the object of a verb or preposition. |
| Grammatical Category | |
| Who can be both an interrogative pronoun and a relative pronoun | Whom is an interrogative pronoun |
| Usage | |
| Who is the subjective form | Whom is the corresponding objective form of who |
| Auxiliary | |
| The word who is often followed by the auxiliary verbs, either ‘is’ or ‘was.’ | The word whom is often preceded by the preposition ‘to. |
Summary – Who vs Whom
Both who and whom can be categorised under the grammatical category of pronouns in the English language. The difference between who and whom is that who denotes the subjective case and whom denotes the objective case as interrogative pronouns.
Images Courtesy:
- ‘Who example’ by YoshiLuke (CC BY-SA 3.0) via DeviantArt