Reply
Mon 30 Jul, 2007 12:00 am
The use of Who/Whom has always confused me. Should I say 'Who are you going out with?' or 'Whom are you going out with?'.
Thanks in Advance
Sid.
The correct form is "Whom are you going out with?"
"Who" is used when the word is meant as a subject; "whom" is used when the word is meant as an object. In cases where the sentence is a question, one helpful way to look at it is to rewrite the sentence as a statement. For example, your sentence, "Who/whom are you going out with?", if rewritten as a statement, would look like this: "You are going out with who/whom." When it is written as a statement rather than a question, it is easier to see that the "who/whom" is an object rather than a subject (because the subject of the sentence is clearly "you"). Hence, the sentence should take the objective form: "whom."