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I understand that when "those" is referred to as the subject of the verb we use "whom", and when "they" is the object we use "who".

But consider the following sentence,

This is being funded by future taxpayers, many of whom are yet to be born.

Are 'they' the object of "are" (to be), in which case 'they' should be "who"? Or are 'they' the subject of some other verb? On first writing, "whom" seemed correct, but, on looking again, I think it should be "who" because I can't see what verb 'they' could be a subject of.

This was not answered here: Many of who or many of whom?

That question was wrongly marked as a duplicate (IMO) and not answered in the linked question (AFAICS). My question is essentially the same.

Justin
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Jake
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  • I disagree with the assessment that the duplicate was incorrect. The most upvoted answer in the original question – with a massive 160+ votes, so clearly a very popular and helpful solution – answers this question as well. I'm therefore voting to close as a duplicate of that original question. – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Apr 01 '22 at 00:30
  • I don't know anyone who would say *"many of who". I'd say it's ungrammatical, so stick with "many of whom". – BillJ Apr 01 '22 at 08:31
  • @BillJ: It's arguable, probably. Araucaria's answer here gives the same judgement as you. I wasn't thinking too much about the specifics when I made the preceding comment--"many of whom are" is definitely much more common. – herisson Apr 01 '22 at 10:31
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    I agree that the very general post about "What’s the rule for using “who” and “whom” correctly?" isn't a good answer to your question. I think that I was able to find another post with an answer that does address your question. There's also "Most of which" or "most of whom" or "most of who"? – herisson Apr 01 '22 at 10:34

1 Answers1

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In 'many of whom', 'whom' is the object of a preposition (the preposition being 'of'). As an object, it takes objective case. In formal writing, 'whom' is used as the object form, but informally, many people use 'who' for both subject and object.

Some other pronouns that have two different forms, a subject form and an object form, are

he/him

she/he

they/them

If someone isn't sure if 'who' is an object or a subject in a particular sentence, they can often work it out by substituting a different pronoun they are more familiar with.

Evene
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  • Yes, but the point is that *many of who is ungrammatical. – BillJ Apr 01 '22 at 08:53
  • The rule substituting a different pronoun works here too though: "... much of him is yet to be discovered" not "... much of he is yet to be discovered". – Jake Jul 20 '22 at 23:27