"Who" and "whom"

Plus tip of the week and fun with English

Photo by Daria Shevtsova on Unsplash

1. My most popular post: “who” and “whom”

It isn’t always easy to predict which posts will do well on social media. Last week, I posted something about “who” and “whom”  on LinkedIn and Facebook. I wasn’t sure if this would be interesting but I got a lot of reactions and comments.

Some people even got a bit upset with me! This sometimes happens when I say something different from what people learnt at school. But languages change.

Here’s a slightly edited and improved version of the post:

We don’t often use “whom” these days. In fact, it sounds old-fashioned.

What did you learn about “whom” at school? I’d be interested to know.

Whatever the old grammar books say, “who” sounds more natural in most situations in modern English.

In OLDER English, the rule WAS to use “who” for the subject and “whom” for the object.

For example:

Katie taught Anna last year.

Subject = Katie

Object = Anna

Who’s Katie? She’s the teacher who taught Anna last year. (who = subject)

Who’s Anna? She’s the student whom Katie taught last year. (whom = object)

Who taught Anna? (who = subject)

Whom did Katie teach? (whom = object)

BUT

“She’s the student who Katie taught last year” 

and

“Who did Katie teach?”

are perfectly acceptable in 21st-century English and actually sounds more natural.

We do occasionally use “whom” in phrases like “one of whom” or “none of whom”. For example:

Katie taught lots of students in Poland, one of whom was Anna.

“Who” doesn’t sound right here. But actually, in informal spoken English, it’s much more likely that people would say, “Katie taught lots of students in Poland. One of them was Anna.”

Also, we do use “whom” in very formal writing, such as legal documents, and in fixed phrases like “To whom it may concern” in a business letter.

But the rest of the time, native speakers in the UK and USA hardly ever use “whom”. 

Look up "whom" in the Longman Dictionary or Oxford Learner’s Dictionary if you would like to see more examples.

2. Tip of the week: write a journal

Start writing a journal or diary. Write something about your day or your week in English.

Or write a learning journal. Write about what you’re learning, what’s easy, what’s difficult and so on. This is a good way to celebrate wins and build your confidence.

Don't be afraid to try writing in English! Start small and write about what you know. You can start with just two or three sentences a day and then gradually write more.

When you write, you practise the grammar and vocabulary you know and find out where you have gaps in your knowledge.

If you’d like to read more about journaling, check out this blog post.

3. Last week’s puzzle

Last week, I asked you how many words you can think of which could fit _ R A _ E.

Here are some answers. This isn’t a complete list because I left out the words which I didn’t think you needed to know.

Possible words: brace, brake, brave, crane, crate, crave, craze, drake, drape, erase, frame, grace, grade, grape, grate, grave, graze

4. This week’s puzzle

What word begins with E and ends with E, but only has one letter?

(and no, it’s not the letter E!)

If you think you know the answer, you can put it in the comments.

See you next week!

Katie