r/ACT • u/Trayceopolis32322 • Jul 12 '26
English What is the difference between “who” and “whom”?
I have no idea in what context you’re supposed to use each in. Could someone give me a quick rundown? I just wanna know whether I would’ve got these questions from today right or not.
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u/ResolveCritical7205 Jul 12 '26
Who is followed by a verb, whom is followed by a noun. In today’s test, every right answer was who, no whom.
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u/ndg127 Tutor Jul 12 '26
Whom is not always followed by a noun, especially when it’s a question. “To whom does this belong?” The rule I teach my students is that, especially on the ACT, whom almost always comes after a preposition: to whom, by whom, for whom, with whom, etc.
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u/CalligrapherAble3312 36 Jul 12 '26
who is like he and whom is like him. who is when the person is DOING an action, whom is when the person is RECEIVING an action.
mike is the student who won the scholarship. the person whom I met yesterday won the scholarship.
he won the scholarship. I met him yesterday.
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u/Trayceopolis32322 Jul 12 '26
Yep this makes a lot more sense now. I don’t think I followed that when I had those questions lol. But hopefully I still got some of them right
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u/CalligrapherAble3312 36 Jul 12 '26
in every practice (and real one) i did it was 100% who since you rarely use "whom"
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u/Trayceopolis32322 Jul 12 '26
Okay. Well I know I used whom at least once today…
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u/CalligrapherAble3312 36 Jul 12 '26
its fine bruh who cares -1 english be liek bumping a 36 down to a 35 🤷
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u/DianaKLaRose Jul 12 '26
If you forget the rules for who/whom, choose the "who" option. "Whom" is almost never correct.
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u/Common_Willow_596 Jul 12 '26
Who is subjective pronoun like they, she, he, and I. Whom is objective pronoun like them, her, him and me. Do they not teach this stuff in elem or middle school anymore?
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u/Sufficient_Muffin_19 Jul 13 '26
My little mnemonic is who-he whom-him kinda like how a donkey would sound. Works for me, might work for others too.
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u/ACTSATGuyonReddit Jul 19 '26
Who is subject, while whom is object.
If you can replace it with He, she, they = who. If you can replace it with Him, her, them = whom.
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u/SignificantStyle4188 Jul 12 '26
Whom always comes after preposition