Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my channel, Sparkle English, where I teach you how to
improve your level of English. Today's lesson is for both English native speakers and also
English learners. We're talking about the difference between who and whom. Who and whom
are often confused in English. They are both pronouns that refer to people. However, they
have different meanings and uses. First of all, let's listen to the pronunciation who
and whom.In casual conversation, people usually just say who. However, it's important to know
the difference, especially when you are writing. Who is a pronoun that we use to refer to the subject
of a sentence.Who refers to the person performing the action or being discussed. In my last
video, I talked about subjects versus objects, and this may help you in this lesson. For
example, who is going to the party tonight? In this example, we are referring to the subject
of the sentence: who is going? Who wants ice cream for dessert? Who thinks this is a bad
idea? Do you know who won the game last night? In these examples, who is used as the subject
of the sentence. If we answer these sentences, for example who is going to the party tonight? Jack
is going to the party tonight. Well, Jack would be the subject of the sentence. Jack
is going. Remember, the subject usually goes before the verb. Who wants ice cream for
dessert? The children want ice cream. The children would be the subjects of the sentence. Whereas
whom is a pronoun that we use to refer to the object of a verb or preposition. Whom
refers to the person receiving the action or being affected. For example, Whom did
you invite to the party? Whom is referring to the person receiving the action. If I answered
this sentence, my answer would be: I invited Jack. "I" would be the subject, and "Jack"
would be the object of the sentence. To whom should I address this letter? Whom did you
consult for legal advice? Whom should I contact for technical support? In these examples,
whom is used as the object of the verb or preposition. And if we answered these questions,
we would answer with the object. You should address this letter to George. This might
seem complicated, so let's look at a trick of how we can tell the difference. Let's look
at these two questions. ____ is going to the party tonight? Versus ____ did you invite
to the party tonight? A trick to remember the difference is with the he, him or she,
her rule. Try rephrasing the sentence using personal pronouns like he or him. If he fits,
then who is the correct choice. If him fits, then whom is the correct choice. So for example,
let's rephrase this question. ____ is going to the party? Would we say he is going to
the party or him is going to the party? Of course we would say he is going to the party,
not him. So remember, if he fits, we use who. Who is going to the party? What about in this
second example? Let's rephrase the sentence. I invited he to the party, or I invited him
to the party. The only one that works is "I invited him to the party." We need the object
pronoun, him. So remember, if him fits, then whom is the correct choice. Whom did you
invite to the party? Let's try this trick again. ____ is your Spanish teacher? Would
we say he is my Spanish teacher or him is my Spanish teacher? Of course, we would say:
he is my Spanish teacher. We need the subject, so we use the pronoun who. Who is your Spanish
teacher? The next example. To ____ did you give the gift? I gave the gift to he, or I
gave the gift to him. In this one, we need to write him. We need the object pronoun.
The answer is: to whom did you give the gift? So ask yourself: do you need the subject or
the object? And if you can replace the sentence with he or she, use who. If you can rephrase
the sentence with him or her, use whom. Let's do this quiz. Fill in the blanks with who
or whom. Number one, ____ should I ask for assistance? Number two. ____ is that person
standing near the entrance? Number three: ____ wants to join me for a coffee break?Number
four. For ____ did you prepare this surprise? Number five: do you know ____ won the singing
competition? Number six: ____ did you meet at the bookstore? So remember to rephrase
the question to find the right answer. So number one, the answer is whom. Whom should
I ask for assistance? If we rephrased this question and answered it, the answer would
be: you should ask he, or you should ask him? We would say you should ask him. So we replace
this with whom. Number two, who is that person standing near the entrance? We could replace
this with he. He is the person standing near the entrance. Number three is also who. Who
wants to join me for a coffee break?This could also be replaced with he. He wants to join
me for a coffee break. Number four. For ____ did you prepare this surprise? This one we have
to use whom. For whom did you prepare this surprise? If we rephrased this question, I
prepared this surprise for he or for him; we would write him. So we replace this with
whom. Number five, who do you know who won the singing competition? We could say Jane
won the singing competition. She won, not her won. And finally, number six, whom did
you meet at the bookstore? Because if we rephrased this, I met him at the bookstore,
not I met he at the bookstore. Okay, so this is a tricky one, but try to rephrase the questions
in your head. And that is the best way to know the difference between when to write
who and when to write whom. So let me know in the comments section how many you got correct
out of six. And if you have trouble with subjects and objects, check out my video on subjects
versus objects, which I've also linked you to in the description below this video. Thank
you for watching, and I'll see you all in my next lesson!