If you can replace the word with “he”, you always use who. If you can replace the word with “him”, you can use whom if you want to.
Whom did you lead into battle?
I led him into battle.
Who ate all the cake?
He ate all the cake.
The key takeaway is you can always use who and it will be correct, because who is both a subject and an object. So, if you don’t want to bother with the rule, just stick to who and you can’t go wrong.
There’s a pretty trivial rule for getting this right. Phrase your sentence using who/whom as a question. Respond with he/him. If your response contains a “he”, your initial statement should be “who”; if it contains a “him” then you’re looking at a “whom” use.
ex: “To who/whom should the gold be given?” -> “To him” -> “whom”
ex: “Who/whom wants the gold?” -> “He wants the gold” -> “who”
ex: “Who/whom did you see at the party?” -> “I saw him” -> “whom”
ex: “The man who/whom called earlier is here” -> “Who/whom called?” -> “he called” -> “who”
It’s pretty much a dead language feature anyway, at least in my area. Whom sounds pretentious as hell if you actually say it. Like, you’d get away about as well with thee or thou.
who/whom.
Maybe it’s because that English is not my first language but I always find it confusing.
If you can replace the word with “he”, you always use who. If you can replace the word with “him”, you can use whom if you want to.
Whom did you lead into battle?
I led him into battle.
Who ate all the cake?
He ate all the cake.
The key takeaway is you can always use who and it will be correct, because who is both a subject and an object. So, if you don’t want to bother with the rule, just stick to who and you can’t go wrong.
Ah it’s kind of like Jeopardy! You’ve gotta visualize the answer to know how to phrase the question.
To whom/for whom is supposed to be the rule for when to use whom, but in American English it sounds way too formal.
Whomst is a fun one.
Whomst’d’ve
There’s a pretty trivial rule for getting this right. Phrase your sentence using who/whom as a question. Respond with he/him. If your response contains a “he”, your initial statement should be “who”; if it contains a “him” then you’re looking at a “whom” use.
I tell people this and say, “Follow the M.”
It’s pretty much a dead language feature anyway, at least in my area. Whom sounds pretentious as hell if you actually say it. Like, you’d get away about as well with thee or thou.