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  • 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 of me with lightsabers and stuff like that,

  • so maybe you'll like that.

  • And if you want to support engVid, don't forget to donate to the site.

  • Til next time, thanks for clicking, and I will see you later.

  • Bye.

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex.

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