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you might find yourself trying to decide
whether you need to use the word whoever
or whomever in a sentence you might be
someone who always uses whomever because
it sounds more formal and therefore
correct or you might be someone who
always uses whoever because it sounds
more casual in the way everyone talks
there is a difference between the two
and I'm going to teach you how you can
decide which one is correct so in order
to decide you need to figure out if you
need a subject or an object in your
sentence
whoever functions as a subject and
whomever functions as an object let's
say I'm throwing a dance party and I let
my guests know whoever arrives first
gets to choose the music well in this
case I've chosen the word whoever
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because I need a subject in this
sentence let me show you why our verb is
arrives so to find the subject we figure
out who is performing the action of the
verb in this case it's whoever whoever
arrives first gets to choose the music
so that's why I've chosen the subject
version there are instances when you
need the word whomever I'll give you an
example let's say I love to dance
and so at my party I will dance with
whomever now why have I chosen the word
whomever with an M in this sentence well
let me show you our verb is dance that's
the action who's performing the action
it's I which means I is the subject who
is the action falling on Who am i
dancing with well in this case I'm
dancing with whomever whomever is the
object which is why I need the word
whomever instead of whoever in this
I use something I like to call the M
trick just to verify that I'm making the
right choice and with the M trick the
word him can be substituted for the word
whomever because they both have an M and
the word he can be substituted for the
word whoever is neither of them have an
M so let's see if the M trick works I'll
erase the word whomever and write the
word him and see if my sentence still
makes sense
I will dance with him makes perfect
sense
so that's how you decide whether you
need the word whomever or whoever in
your sentence
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