Who (pronoun)
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The pronoun who, in the English language, is the interrogative and relative pronoun that is used to refer to human beings and other creatures perceived as sentient.
The corresponding interrogative pronouns for non-sentient beings are what and which, and the relative pronouns are that and which. That and which are sometimes used in contexts where who might be a more suitable choice, and who is likewise used in contexts where that or which would be a more suitable choice.
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In etymology, the spelling represents the expected outcome of Old English hwâ, while the actual pronunciation represents a divergent outcome. It is cognate with Latin quis and Greek ποιός.
[edit] Case forms
Traditionally, who is the subjective (nominative) form only. According to traditional Prescriptive grammar: who is a subjective pronoun, and whom is the corresponding objective pronoun. Whose is the possessive form, not who's which is a contraction. See also: English declension.
Whom is falling out of use in informal English (increasingly, especially in American English, in some formal situations as well) and is used 10 times less often than who. In such instances, who has replaced whom as both the subjective and objective form.
Whom remains in significant use following a preposition[citation needed] (see examples immediately below). In informal contexts, the preposition may instead be placed at the end (see preposition stranding), and the word who may be omitted where it is used as a relative pronoun. For example:
- (relative, formal): He is someone to whom I owe a great deal.
- (interrogative, formal): To whom did you give it?
- (relative, informal): He is someone (who) I owe a great deal to.
- (interrogative, informal): Who did you give it to?
[edit] Rules for determining who vs. whom in traditional usage
To determine whether who or whom should be used in a sentence, it may be helpful to recast the sentence in non-interrogative form using a personal pronoun (he, she, etc.) to determine whether he or she (subjects), or him or her (objects) would be used in place of who or whom. For example, in determining:
- *Who did you call? versus Whom did you call?
this yields:
- incorrect — *You called she.
- correct — You called her.
Since the former sentence is a solecism, the latter sentence, using whom rather than who, is correct.
In determining:
- Who is calling? versus *Whom is calling?
this yields:
- correct — She is calling.
- incorrect — *Her is calling.
indicating that who is appropriate for this question.
Whom is the form used when prepositions are involved. Again this is analogous to personal pronouns, for which the objective form is also used after a preposition. For example:
- To whom have you been talking? (Compare: You have been talking to him.)
- For whom have you taken these marvellous photographs? (You have taken these marvellous photographs for him.)
- With whom are you going to the cinema? (You are going to the cinema with him.)
- He sent gifts to his granddaughter, of whom he was fond.
- He sent gifts to his granddaughter, whom he was fond of.
The indirect object is normally formed with to, so is generally just a particular example of the usage with prepositions (to whom). In some situations, whom can also be used by itself to represent the indirect object. However this is only really used in contexts where the direct object is omitted, e.g. Whom will you tell? Where the direct object is expressed, to is generally included, even where an analogous sentence using a personal pronoun might use the pronoun as the indirect object, e.g. You will tell him a story but To whom will you tell a story?
The distributive pronouns who(m)ever and who(m)soever take the case appropriate to their internal clause. For example, in
- Let whoever is without sin cast the first stone
whoever is in the nominative because it is the subject of is (cf. He is without sin), even though it is also the object of let (cf. Let him cast the first stone). However, in
- Whomever you meet there is bound to be interesting
whomever is in the accusative because it is the object of meet (cf. You meet her), even though it is also the subject of is (cf. She is bound to be interesting.)
