BBC Learning English Who whom Lyrics

There are two things worth knowing about the use of the p___oun 'whom'. Firstly, in modern English usage it's considered rather formal and old-fashioned, although it does still sometimes appear in academic and official forms of writing. 'Who' is the modern equivalent that can be used either formally or informally and in spoken and written forms.

We are also more limited with the use of 'whom' grammatically, as it only appears as an object p___oun - so relating to or defining the object of the sentence, rather than the subject. For example, we might refer to the man to whom I spoke. In this case the man is the object, and I the subject. 'Whom' refers to 'the man', not me, and is preceded by the preposition 'to'. In modern everyday use, we'd be much more likely to say the man who I spoke to, with the preposition coming at the end of our sentence and creating a much more informal and colloquial effect.

'Who' is also flexible in that it can be both a subject or an object p___oun. So, the man who spoke to me or the man who I spoke to would both work. We can't do the same thing with 'whom' which is limited to defining our object.

So, I hope that's clear - thanks again for your question.