To settle aRgarment....Which is correct:

Question

1. Two people WHO  I love ...

 

Or

2. Two people WHOM I love...

 

Answer 1

Hello Greg, 

Here are some thoughts which may assist you in resolving the argument: 

First, the word "whom" is always used as an object, not a subject of the sentence. 

Second, I highly recommend reviewing the differences between a subjective case versus an objective case. I will provide you a link below. 

Third, believe it or not, 'most' students I have taught, have used the word 'that' to replace the conundrum faced when having to use the words 'who' or 'whom.' The truth of the matter however, is that most instructors will accept either who or whom, but this is dependent upon the audience. For example, at Harvard, one would be looked down upon if using the wrong case, while State Colleges do not seem to be as picky over which word to use. But grammar is grammar. And right is right, and wrong is wrong. 

Fourth, look at the relative clause and relative pronoun in isolation: "whom I love."  If you remove the relative pronoun “whom,” you end up with "I love," but I love very much is an incomplete relative clause because it is not clear whom you love. In other words, I love very much doesn’t mean the same as I love two people; that’s why you need the relative pronoun: it connects the two clauses and clarifies your meaning.

Finally, the matter can usually be settled by substituting the word "him" for the words 'whom' or 'who.' Doing so allows one to, in most cases, determine the way the word is being used and how one can best resolve the issue. 

I highly recommend the program Grammarly as the folks running that site seem to have a firm grasp on the matter. I will leave you a link for this specific topic. Also, I will leave you a link from a University English Professor. Again: personally, I would call your argument a "draw." Sorry, I cannot do better for you. Here are those links and I hope I have helped you and that you have a great weekend. 

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below in the comment section. Now, those links: 

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/who-vs-whom-its-not-as-complicated-as-you-might-think/


http://web.ku.edu/~edit/whom.html

Answer 2

This is not hard. The case of who /whom depends on its role in the relative clause.

the relative clause here is “who/whom I love”. the subject is ”I”, the verb is “love”, and the direct object is ”Whom”. The subject can’t be “Who”, because then what is “I”.

 

The only right answer is “Whom”.

Answer 3

Mark B, the second link you provided suggests using he/him or she/her to replace with who/whom.  He says that if you could replace he/her in the sentence somewhere to make sense of the sentence, you should be using who.  If you could replace him/her in the sentence somewhere to make sense of the sentence, you should be using whom.  However in this case if you rearrange the sentence, you have I love two people.  Two people is plural, so you should replace they/them with who/whom.  Replacing they doesn't make sense and you already have a subject, I.  Replacing them makes more sense.  I love them.  Them is not the subject.  Therefore, I would pick whom in this case.