With Whom I Had Been Speaking

Who was talking just now?

To whom were you talking just now? I was talking to her. The actual usage of who and whom is not quite so simple, however. Even native English speakers have difficulty remembering when to use who and when to use whom.

Generally, whom is more formal than who and does not appear much in spoken English. Whom does appear more in written English, but we've found that who is more common in a few situations where whom would be used instead:. Who is more common than whom in a subordinate clause: The clerk who I was speaking to has left the building. Who is also more common than whom when it begins questions: Who were you talking to just now?

When you use who with to at the beginning of a question, use to whom: To whom did you mail the letter? To who did you mail the letter?

As relative pronouns

She even told him that the other day, "You're the only close friend I have who , though I've never really met, I really care and worry about. These two sentences are completely idiomatic to the English speaker. The context here is informal, so a native speaker would tend to use who instead of whom.

1. .
2. Awaken to Reality.
3. .

Some teachers may tell you that you need to use whom in the first sentence at least if not the second sentence , but it would make the sentence sound very formal. Most native speakers would not consider your grammar bad if you used who in these two sentences.

• They called her Mom.
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• All prepositions in English govern the same case (objective case).

The man who you met yesterday is coming to dinner. The man that you met yesterday is coming to dinner. They would also probably move the preposition to the end of the clause in the third example:. The people the funds were supposedly directed to benefited little. However, if you are writing at work, at college or university, or for publication, it is acceptable and even advisable to use the more formal whom , especially in constructions with a preposition.

In one specific context whom seems obligatory: The Millennium Stadium accommodates 72, spectators, all of whom are seated. Congratulations to all the winners, most of whom are definitely reading this blog! Who is correct in both examples. The mistake occurs because the reporting verbs claim and say have been inserted between the grammatical subjects [ elderly woman , journalists ] and the verbs they govern [ has ruined , use ]. If you take them out, you can see that the sentence is wrong, because whom is being incorrectly used as the subject:.

To who/whom am I speaking with?

If you find yourself writing a sentence of that kind, which can happen with verbs such as say , report , think , believe , etc. You can read more about the rules and guidelines about when to use who and when to use whom on the Oxford Dictionaries blog. Archaic words have a charm that never fades away, from French sounding to wondrously mysterious ones. We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. This website uses cookies that provide targeted advertising and which track your use of this website.

You can change your cookie settings at any time. Continue Find out more. In questions Who made this decision? Who do you think we should support? Who do you wish to speak to?

Improve your English: WHO or WHOM?

Most people would say or write the first example in one of these ways: