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I want to know _ you talked to. (who or whom)

I want to know _ the culprit is. (who or whom)

tchrist
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Linda J
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    https://www.google.com/search?q=who+vs+whom&oq=who+vs+whom&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.2489j0&sourceid=chrome&espvd=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8 – Lumberjack Sep 27 '13 at 20:27
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    Use of whom is infrequent and declining – RedGrittyBrick Sep 27 '13 at 20:32
  • @RedGrittyBrick Do you suppose this is because ignorance of grammar is on the rise, or have I been lied to about the rules for who vs whom? – Lumberjack Sep 27 '13 at 20:34
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    @Lumberjack: Possibly, or maybe shifting fashions and/or a desire to avoid sounding stuffy and old fashioned. See Whom do you trust? Wikipedia says "According to Mair, the decline of whom has been speeded by the fact that it is one of relatively few synthetic (inflected) remnants in the principally analytical grammar of Modern English." – RedGrittyBrick Sep 27 '13 at 20:40
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    Interesting read. Thank you! I vote that we just kill whom once and for all and call it a day. – Lumberjack Sep 27 '13 at 20:45
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    @Lumberjack: Probably both. Certainly, knowledge of English grammar among English speakers is almost nonexistent, and, equally certainly, you have been lied to about English grammar if you were educated in an Anglophone school. – John Lawler Sep 27 '13 at 20:45
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    @RedGrittyBrick It's declining, but one still can't go so far as to use who after to. – Talia Ford Sep 27 '13 at 21:26

2 Answers2

2

I want to know ---- you talked to. (who or whom?)
I want to know --- the culprit is. (who or whom?)

The simple answer is:

  • Always use who. Never use whom.

I.e, who works, and is natural and grammatical in both of the example sentences.

  • I want to know who you talked to.
  • I want to know who the culprit is.

This is what most native English speakers would say.

However, if you are bound and determined to use whom,
whether you understand the rule for using it or not,
(and if you did understand the rule, you wouldn't have asked the question)
then you should know that

whom can be used in the first sentence

  • I want to know whom you talked to.

but whom can't be used in the second sentence

  • *I want to know whom the culprit is.
    (that's what the asterisk in front of the sentence above means -- it's ungrammatical).
John Lawler
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An easy rule to remember is: Use 'who' whenever you would use 'I/he/she' (subject) and use 'whom' when you would use 'me/him/her' (object):

I want to know whom you talked to
You talked to me

And conversely:

I want to know who the culprit is
He is the culprit

As mentioned numerous times in this forum, the use of 'whom' is gradually declining. But it's always good to know the right way.

eric
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    Are you saying that Professor John Lawler is wrong then when he says '... who works, and is natural and grammatical in both of the example sentences.' ? – Edwin Ashworth Sep 27 '13 at 21:58
  • @Edwin, Eric's suggested way of differentiating is useful, although it would perhaps have been better to make it clear that this is a way to ascertain when you could use whom, rather than baldly stating: Use whom when ... . There are, in fact, written contexts when using whom is a small courtesy to the reader. If a sentence starts: The candidate who ... I momentarily expect the candidate to be the subject of the following relative clause. If the sentence continues The candidate who Obama appointed ..., then my expectations are confounded. – Shoe Sep 28 '13 at 06:43
  • [cont] This is not usually a big deal, but in some contexts (e.g. application letters), the reader may react negatively. – Shoe Sep 28 '13 at 06:44