Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Who vs. Whom: Are you Following?



My Twitter friends are on fire lately. @WellVersedMom pointed out a grammar gaffe that pops up on everyone's Twitter sidebar. Her peeve is with the new(ish) 'Who to follow' tool.

Where does Twitter go wrong? It uses who instead of whom.

Quick rules:
  • Use who if referring to the subject of a sentence. Who follows you? Who just said that?
  • Use whom if referring to an object of a sentence. Whom do you admire? Whom are you talking about?

Try this:
  • Whom is often the object of a prepositional phrase. In the Twitter example, the preposition 'to' is the clue that you should use whom.
  • Restate the question or phrase in your mind. If you can answer using another object pronoun such as 'them' or 'her,' then use whom. Who/Whom to follow? >> I'm going to follow her.

Correction:
  • Whom to follow

6 comments:

  1. another easy way to remember using the letter M: if the answer could be "him," use whom.
    i.e.: Whom do you follow? I follow him.

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  2. Thanks for explanation. Now I understand it! I've wrote "who to follow" in an online spell checker and it said that the sentence is incorrect.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There are even better prospects highlighted herein which will further enforce towards better and circumstantial piece objects to be discussed forthwith.

    ReplyDelete

  4. The ongoing debate of "Who vs. Whom" is a common grammar challenge that many encounter. A simple trick to remember is to substitute "he" or "him" in place of "who" or "whom".

    ReplyDelete