Subjects, Objects and Possessive Forms
To understand how to use "who," "whom," and "whose," you first have to understand the difference between subjects, objects, and possessive forms.
Subjects do an action:
- He loves movies.
- She goes to school.
- We enjoy Chinese food.
Objects receive an action:
- The teachers like him.
- Thomas knows her.
- The actor smiled at us.
Possessive forms tell us the person something belongs to:
- His bike is broken.
- I like her new book.
- The teacher graded our homework.
"Who" is a Subject Pronoun
"Who" is a subject pronoun like "he," "she" and "we" in the examples above. We use "who" to ask which person does an action or which person is a certain way.
Examples:
- Who made the birthday cake?
- Who is in the kitchen?
- Who is going to do the dishes?
"Whom" is an Object Pronoun
"Whom" is an object pronoun like "him," "her" and "us." We use "whom" to ask which person receives an action.
Examples:
- Whom are you going to invite?
- Whom did he blame for the accident?
- Whom did he hire to do the job?
"Whose" is a Possessive Pronoun
"Whose" is a possessive pronoun like "his," "her" and "our." We use "whose" to find out which person something belongs to.
Examples:
- Whose camera is this?
- Whose dog is barking outside?
- Whose cell phone keeps ringing?
