Who vs Whom: The He/Him Test
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Short answer
The he/him test
Who and whom work the same way as he and him.
- Who is a subject, like he, she and they. It does the action.
- Whom is an object, like him, her and them. The action happens to it.
To choose, answer the question or rewrite the clause using he or him.
| Sentence | Rewrite | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| ___ called you? | He called you. | who |
| ___ did you call? | You called him. | whom |
| ___ is the report for? | The report is for him. | whom |
| The woman ___ wrote this is here. | She wrote this. | who |
| The man ___ we met is here. | We met him. | whom |
The memory aid is in the spelling: him ends in m, and so does whom.
After a preposition
If to, for, with, from or another preposition sits directly in front, it is always whom.
- To whom it may concern
- With whom did you travel?
- The colleague for whom I was covering
The one that fools people
In a sentence like Give it to ___ needs it most, the preposition tempts you towards whom. But look at the clause on its own: ___ needs it most. That is he needs it most, so the answer is who. The whole clause is the object of to; inside the clause, the word is a subject.
The same trap appears with I think or they say in the middle: The candidate ___ I think will win — ignore I think, and you get he will win, so it is who.
Do you have to use whom?
In conversation and in most informal writing, who in object position — Who did you call? — is standard, and nobody will mark it wrong. In formal writing, such as essays, legal documents and cover letters, readers still expect whom where the grammar calls for it, and always after a preposition.
If whom sounds stiff in a sentence, you can often rewrite it: Who did you speak to? becomes Which colleague did you speak to?
Quick check
- ___ left the door open?
- You sent it to ___?
- The student ___ won the prize is in my class.
Answers: who, whom, who.