knock knock who's there - - oh no it's -
whom
hi everyone I'm Vicky
and I'm British head I'm Jay and I'm
American we've had a lot of requests for
a video about who and who it's taken us
a long time to make it why is that it's
because of the word whom we don't use it
much these days
we usually say who instead when we're
speaking and what about written English
ah that's different there are particular
documents where we use whom we'll tell
you more about that later but first
we'll show you how who and whom work
yeah you need to know about subjects and
objects no what happened
I don't know someone hit me oh I have no
idea
oh dear but I'll be ready next time so
what happened there someone hit me so
someone we don't know who did the action
and Jay received the action someone is
the subject in this sentence and Jay is
the object yeah but it won't happen
again
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you hit someone yep
oh did you hit that guy over there so
this time you hit someone else yeah I
got that guy so in this sentence J's the
subject because he did the action and
the other guy's the object because he
received the action Vicky asked me two
questions first she asked about the
subject and then she asked about the
object
she used the pronoun who both times when
we're speaking we use who to ask about
the subject and the object it's
according to an old rule of formal
grammar I made a mistake here the rule
goes we should use who to ask about the
subject and whom to ask about the object
so who hit Jayde and whom did Jay hit so
that's the difference between who and
whom who is a subject pronoun
and whom is an object pronoun yeah we
need another example
hey stop that man take a look at these
questions if you follow the traditional
grammar rule one question should start
with who and the other should start with
whom can you work out which is which you
need to think about subjects and objects
so we're asking a question about who did
the action here the chasing so this
question is asking about the subject of
the sentence we use who because who is a
subject pronoun and this question is
asking about who received the action the
object whom is an object pronoun if you
think it sounds complicated you're not
alone a lot of people find it hard
native speakers often get confused these
days when we're speaking we use who in
both questions so a lot of English
speakers don't know when to use whom but
don't worry there's a trick for working
it out
it's the he/him test we'll show you how
it works if you're not sure whether to
use who or whom try answering the
question with another pronoun that you
already know you probably know these
they're all subject pronouns and you
probably know these two they're all
object pronouns we can use he and him to
test whether who or who works notice
that he and who are both subject
pronouns and him and whom are both
object pronouns and also noticed that
him and whom both end with the letter M
that will help you remember that they go
together here's an example should you
say who or whom here
no idea then try answering with he or
him he follows me on Twitter that sounds
possible what about him
him follows me on Twitter no that sounds
wrong so who is correct he is another
example it's the missing word who or
whom well let's answer the question with
he I follow he know that sounds wrong
let's try him I follow him that sounds
good
so the answer here is whom so that's a
way to test if it's who or whom but
remember we don't normally follow this
rule in spoken English we use who is an
object pronoun these days but some
people get upset about it if they see
who instead of whom yes like Twitter has
a feature called
who to follow and some people complained
and wanted them to call it whom to
follow who to follow
that's technically correct but we'd
never say it I think it's a silly idea
home sounds very old-fashioned and very
very formal whom can sound
Hopper's exactly who creates a social
distance between you and your listener
you don't want to sound pompous it's not
a good thing another word that's similar
to pompous is pretentious whom can sound
pretentious you don't want to seem like
you're pretending to be more
sophisticated than you are so be careful
with the word whom don't say it in
questions when you're speaking yeah but
there's another grammatical structure
where we could use whom what's that
relative clauses so let's season now
before we start the conference there are
some people whom we must fight there's
mr. Jones who sent
invitations and mrs. Smith who organized
the accommodation and then there's mr.
Peters whom you will meet later when he
will explain the conference schedule and
then there's something green in your
teeth is it gone
yeah you're all right let's see how
those relative clauses work we use
relative clauses to add information
about someone we've just mentioned the
same rules for who and whom apply we use
who for subjects and whom for objects
and if you're not sure you can use the
he him test again
so with mr. Jones did he send the
invitations or did him send the
invitations he did so we need the
subject pronoun here who and it's the
same with mrs. Smith she did the action
so we say who and some more examples we
must thank some people we must thank he
that doesn't sound good
we must thank him that works so we need
an object pronoun and the last one mr.
Peters are we going to meet he later or
him later
it's him so we say whom you'll only find
whom used like this in very formal
spoken English normally we'd say who in
these examples languages change over
time and in spoken English whom has been
disappearing in fact it's almost gone
and what about written English it's
hanging on there we still use it but
only in formal writing in emails and
texts we'll use who instead of whom but
some companies have a house style for
formal reports where they use whom
whom is still the house style for the
New York Times I did a search of my
computer and I found whom in two kinds
of documents
what were they legal documents like
contracts ah yes
contracts are written in a very formal
style and academic papers so research
papers that are published in journals
that makes sense
they're formal too oh and I also found
it in a reference a job reference yes
I'd written a reference for someone and
I didn't know the name of the person I
was writing to so I addressed it to to
whom it may concern that's a standard
phrase I often use it when I submit job
applications and again it's very formal
and it's interesting because a lot of
the time we can write who instead of
whom these days and it's fine and
appropriate but here we wouldn't write
who it would sound strange it has to be
whom is it because it comes after a
preposition yes in formal writing it's
better to write whom in constructions
with prepositions in fact the most
common way we use whom is in phrases
like one of whom some of whom most of
whom so we'd write whom here not who
because it comes after of yes whom often
follows a preposition of whom with whom
from whom and to whom of course but
that's formal writing in spoken English
to whom sounds silly
now settle down children we are going to
do some grammar so whom does this sock
belong
according to the traditional grammar
rule this question is correct
but we would never say it we might say
who does this sock belong to but then
the question ends with a preposition
yeah that's fine but when I was in
school my teacher said you shouldn't end
a sentence with a preposition that rule
is stupid if you want us to make another
video about silly English grammar rules
tell us in the comments do you think the
hoo-hoo rule is silly I know the word
whom is disappearing but there are still
places where it's appropriate to use
whom like in formal writing we hope this
video has been useful for the writers
who we teach whom we teach who we teach
it's time to stop if you've enjoyed this
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see you next week everyone bye bye bye
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