Using who and whom correctly is one of the great shibboleths of grammar. Using who when one should use whom is often seen as a lack of linguistic refinement. Unfortunately, the desire to be refined leads many people to stray in the opposite direction, using whom in circumstances when a simple who would suffice. This is a pity, because there is a simple way to decide which is correct for the occasion. [Break]
But first, let’s deal with the easy part of the title: whose and who’s. This is simple. Who’s is always a contraction of ‘who is’, and whose is always the possessive of ‘who’.
‘Who’s going to tell us whose turn it is?’
Some writers are misled on occasion by the apostrophe in who’s, mistaking it for the genitive (possessive) case rather than a contraction. But the analogy is not with possessives like ‘man’s’ or ‘writer’s’, but with other genitive pronouns: yours, his, hers, theirs, ours, which like whose need no apostrophe because they are already in the possessive case.
So what are the rules for who and whom? Well, who is supposed to be used when the reference is to the subject of the sentence, while whom is used to refer to the object of the sentence, or after a preposition. For example:
- Who will tell us whose turn it is? (who is the subject of tell)
- Whom will he tell whose turn it is? (whom is the object of tell)
- From whom will we learn whose turn it is? (after the preposition from).
This is a fairly simple test, but sometimes it can be hard to determine the subject and object of a sentence – for example, when there are intervening verbs or clauses. Fortunately, rather than having to parse the sentence there is a simple test which will identify which is correct: he/she = who, him/her = whom.
So, if a rephrasing of the sentence, or the answer to the question, would require using he or she, then who should be used.
- She will tell us whose turn it is. (So who is correct)
But if the rephrasing or answer would require him or her, then whom is the correct choice.
- She will tell him whose turn it is. (So whom is correct)
- We will learn whose turn it is from her. (So whom is correct)
And for whoever and whomever, simply work out whether who or whom is correct in a rephrasing.
Simple rules. With advice this clear, who’s able to deny that anyone who still gets it wrong is someone whom even clear rules cannot help.
