Which is correct - who or whom?

Question

1. What is the name of the person who the doctor treated?
2. What is the name of the person whom the doctor treated?

Answer 1

Whom should be used to refer to the object of a verb or preposition. When in doubt, try this simple trick: If you can replace the word with “he”' or “'she,” use who. If you can replace it with “him” or “her,” use whom. Who should be used to refer to the subject of a sentence.

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Examples:

Who/Whom wrote the letter?

He wrote the letter. Therefore, who is correct.

Who/Whom should I vote for?

Should I vote for him? Therefore, whom is correct.

We all know who/whom pulled that prank.

This sentence contains two clauses: we all know and who/whom pulled that prank. We are interested in the second clause because it contains the who/whom. He pulled that prank. Therefore, who is correct.

We wondered who/whom the book was about.

This sentence contains two clauses: we wondered and who/whom the book was about. Again, we are interested in the second clause because it contains the who/whom. The book was about him. Therefore, whom is correct.

Answer 2

A good trick that I use to remember how to correctly use these two words is to play with replacing the subject with he/she/they or him/her/them. "He" corresponds to who and "him" corresponds to whom.

Michael is giving a report on bullfrogs.

Okay... Let's replace Michael with he vs. him.

He is giving a report on bullfrogs.

Him is giving a report on bullfrogs.

"He" is the correct answer here, so we would write:

"That's the student who is giving the report on bullfrogs."

A whom example could be:

"Michael gave the teacher, Miss Potroast, his report on bullfrogs."

Who did he give it to? He gave it to her. He did not give it to she. "Michael gave her his report on bullfrogs."

"Miss Potroast is the teacher to whom Michael will give his report."

Answer 3

"Who" is a subjective pronoun. "Whom" is the objective pronoun. Okay, so what does this mean?

"Who" refers to the subject of the sentence.

"Whom" refers to the object of the sentence.

The subject of the person is "doctor."

The object of the sentence is "person"

So the second sentence uses "whom" correctly: What is the name of the person whom the doctor treated?