Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to
this lesson on "Who" vs. "Whom". That's right, today we are going to look at
one of the most commonly confused and asked about subjects in the English language, not just
by new English learners but native speakers as well. So, we're going to use some grammar terminology,
but I'm also going to give you some examples that will make it very clear what the
difference between these two words is. So, first I'm going to talk about how to use
them in statements, and after I'm going to show you how to use them with quantifiers,
and at the end I'll look at some question examples with these two. So, let's start. First: "who" and "whom". These are relative pronouns. Now, what this means is "who" is a subject relative
pronoun, "whom" is an object relative pronoun. What does this mean? Well, this means that when you use "who" in
a sentence to give more information about something, you are using it to give
more information about a subject. When you use "whom", you're using it to give
more information about the object of a sentence. So let's look at some
examples first with "who". Number one: "I have an uncle
who works for Apple." Number two: "There's someone
who is waiting for you." Number three: "Tom, who's been working
here forever, recently found a new job." What do they all have in common? Well, they all have a subject, a person
who you're giving more information about. So, I'm going to mark things up a little
bit so you can see how this works. "I have an uncle who
works for Apple." Who are you giving more information
about in this sentence? You are giving more
information about your uncle. So you have "who", and
"who" relates to an uncle. Now, this uncle is
doing an action. The uncle works for Apple. So, if you have a subject, you're giving more
information about the subject, and the subject is doing an action after
who, then you use "who". All right? "I have an uncle who works",
he works for Apple. Next: "There is someone
who is waiting for you." So we have "who". Who does "who" relate to? "Who" relates to "someone",
a mystery person. So there's someone who
is waiting for you. Yes, we are giving more information about
someone, and the someone is doing an action. So here they are waiting. So I have someone... There is someone who is waiting. They are the ones who
are doing the action. Next: "Tom, who's been working here
forever, recently found a new job." So we have "who", I'm just going to
mark "who's", "who has" been working. And yes, we are
talking about Tom. And we are saying that Tom
has been working here. So if the subject of the sentence is doing
the action here, then you need to use "who". Next: "whom". Three sentences. One: "Ghandi is someone
whom most people admire." Two: "That's the guy
whom she married." Three: "My best friend, whom I've known
for 10 years, is getting married." So, what's the difference between these
sentences and the sentences with "who"? Hmm. "Ghandi is someone whom
most people admire." Yes, the sentence
is about Ghandi. We are talking about
Ghandi in this sentence. But also important: Is Ghandi doing an action
in this sentence or is he receiving an action in this sentence? Here we have: "Ghandi is someone
whom most people admire." The sentence is actually talking
about the people who admire Ghandi. The people are doing
an action to Ghandi, and Ghandi is receiving the
action in this sentence. So, here, and this is true in most cases,
after "whom" you usually have someone who does the action to someone else. So: "Ghandi is someone
whom most people admire." Next: "That's the guy
whom she married." We see "whom". Who does "whom" relate to? Yes, we are talking about the guy,
but the guy is receiving the action. He's actually an object here,
because she married him. Now, I don't mean that the man is
an object and the woman is the... An object in many cases, so
I don't mean any of that. But grammatically, that's
the guy whom she married. The guy is receiving the
action of marriage from her. And finally: "My best friend, whom I have
known for 10 years, is getting married." Here we have "whom". Who are we talking about? Okay, my best friend, yeah. But my best friend is
receiving an action here. I have known my best friend. Okay? So here, I'm saying I have
known my best friend. I have known him or her. Okay? So if this person that you want to talk about
is receiving some kind of action, like: "Ghandi is someone whom
most people admire.", "That's the guy
whom she married.", "My best friend, whom I've known
for 10 years, is getting married." If you have these cases
you must use "whom". A very easy trick, quick and easy to remember:
In most cases, when you use "who" you're going to use a verb after it. Okay? So: "He's someone who works all the time.",
"They are a couple who is very happy." And "whom" most of the time you are going
to have a pronoun, a person, someone's name after it. So: "He is someone whom
many people respect." Or: "She's someone whom I love." Now, I say most cases because in the
passive voice you could also say: "Ghandi is someone
whom is admired." And obviously we're saying by
many people in this situation. Okay, I'm going to go to the next room and
we're going to look at quantifiers with "who" or "whom", and we're going to look
at questions with "who" or "whom". Come with me. Oh, you guys are already here. Perfect. All right, so next we're going to talk
about "who" and "whom" with quantifiers. Now, don't let the word
"quantifiers" scare you. Quantifiers just mean words that talk about
quantity, like "many"; or numbers like "one", "two", "three", "four", "five";
or "some; or "most; or "20%". It can be anything that involves
numbers, and quantity, and size. Okay? So, here I have two sentences. First: "My students, most of whom are
from Brazil, have a test today." Next: "There are 20 people at
the party, 16 of whom I know." Now, here: "most of whom are from
Brazil", "16 of whom I know", these are actually adjective clauses
that include quantifiers in them, an expression of quantity. And first thing I want to do
is explain the formula to you. So when you use this construction, you need
your subject, you need a subject like: "my students" or "20
people at the party". So, after that you
need quantifier. For quantifier, I'm just going to put "q"
plus "of" plus "whom" plus other info. I'm just going to
put "other info". So it's always: "most of
whom", "some of whom", "three of whom", "two of
whom", "30% of whom", and you'll also notice I'm always
saying: "whom", "whom", "whom", "whom". This is one case where you
always have to say "whom". Okay? You cannot say: "Most of who". It's always: "Most of whom",
"three of whom", etc. So, let's look at
these one more time. "My students, most of whom are
from Brazil, have a test today." They have a test today. And next: "There are 20 people at
the party, 16 of whom I know." So I know 16 people at the party,
and the party has 20 people. So just remember when you have this
construction you need to use "whom". And there is actually a lesson on this on my
engVid channel, so you can check that out, too, if you want more
detailed explanation. And finally, questions. Now, questions are tricky... And all of this is tricky actually, but questions
in particular because very few people, especially native speakers use "whom" in a question form,
most of the time because they don't know the rule. And the rule is followed in the same way like
I explained at the beginning where "who" is subject relative, "whom"
is object relative. So, I have four questions. Let's look at the first one. "Who saw the accident?" These are all
correct, by the way. There are no mistakes
in these questions. "Who saw the accident?" You're asking a question
about: Who saw? Who did the action of seeing? So here it's obvious you must use "who" because
the who, let's say his name is Marcus, and I say: "Marcus saw the accident. Marcus
is the person who saw the accident." He did the action, so in the
question: Who did the action? Who saw the accident? Next: "Whom did she
pick for the job?" Now, here, we have to use "whom" because
she, the boss, is picking them. Okay? So if I say: "She picked Jack", and
Jack is the person who got the job. Okay, Jack is the one
whom she picked. She picked him. So here, again, we don't
know whom she picked. She did the action
to this person. So: "Whom did she
pick for the job?" Next: "Do you know
who won last night?" So I'm watching a soccer game, I'm watching
a hockey game, and you know, I watched it, my friend did not watch it. And he says: "Hey. You
saw the game last night. Do you know who won?" So here, obviously, the team who won is the
team who did the action of scoring and winning. So we have to use "who". And finally: "Do you know
whom she was talking about?" So she was talking
about someone else. We don't know who, and again, the correct
way to say it is in this situation: "whom she was talking about", because
she is giving us more information. We don't know whom she did the
action of talking about to. I'm sorry, that's very complex. So, honestly, guys, in most cases most native
speakers just say "who", especially in questions. So if you say "who" and you're a new English
learner, do not worry because almost no one will know that you are
making a mistake. And even though it is technically a grammar
mistake, it's so commonly used and accepted that it's not really a mistake. As a grammar teacher,
I'm telling you that. What's more important, the fact that you speak
correct English or the fact that you speak English that other people are using all around
you and you want to interact with those people? Both are important, correct English, but it's
more important that you are using the English that native speakers are using. Whew. So that's a lot of information today, and I
hope that I was able to erase some of your doubts, some of your confusion
about this very complex topic. And if you want to test your understanding,
and if you want to know for sure that you know the difference between "who" and "whom", as
always, you can check out the quiz on www.engvid.com. And if you liked this video, don't forget to comment on it, like it, subscribe to
the channel, and check me out on Facebook and Twitter. I've got a lot of stuff on there, pictures
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don't forget to donate to the site. Til next time, thanks for clicking,
and I will see you later. Bye.
