WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Grammar Minute: Hoot Owls, Humans, and the Who/Whom Debate

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

Humans and hoot owls have some vocabulary in common. Learn how to use the "owl words" correctly in today's episode of Grammar Minute!

Welcome to the Grammar Minute, where we're saving the English language 60 seconds at a time. I'm Lauren Smith and I'm here to talk about owls. Wait, no, I'm here to talk about who and whom. See what I did there? Moving on from that, here's our sample sentence. To blank did you give the secret package. Should the blank be replaced with who or whom? The answer is whom, because in this case, whom is the object of the preposition to, that is the recipient,

That is, the recipient of the preposition's action. Who, on the other hand, is useful only as a subject. You could say, who is coming with me. But you'd never say, whom's coming with me. Not only is that super hard to say, but it also makes no sense. Don't say it. We're humans, not hood owls. The long and short is, for a subject, use who. For an object of a verb or preposition, use who.

That's your grammar minute.