different between whomever vs whom

English

Alternative forms

• whomsoever

Etymology

whom +? ever

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /hum??v?/
• Rhymes: -?v?(?)

Pronoun

whomever (objective case of whoever)

1. Objective case of whoever.
   • Max Beerbohm:

     “To impose his will on whomever he sees comfortably settled.”

Usage notes

• Who is a subject pronoun. Whom is an object pronoun. To determine whether a particular sentence uses a subject or an object pronoun, rephrase it to use he/she or him/her instead of who, whom; if you use he or she, then you use the subject pronoun who; if you use him or her, then you use the object pronoun. The same rule applies to whoever and whomever.

• Who can also be used as an object pronoun, especially in informal writing and speech (hence one hears not only whom are you waiting for? but also who are you waiting for?), and whom may be seen as (overly) formal; in some dialects and contexts, it is hardly used, even in the most formal settings. As an exception to this, fronted prepositional phrases almost always use whom, e.g. one usually says with whom did you go?, not *with who did you go?. However, dialects in which whom is rarely used usually avoid fronting prepositional phrases in the first place (for example, using who did you go with?).

• The use of who as an object pronoun is proscribed by many authorities, but is frequent nonetheless. It is usually felt as much more acceptable than the converse hypercorrection in which whom is misused in place of who, as in *the gentleman whom spoke to me.

• For more information, see "who" and "whom" on Wikipedia.

Related terms

• whom
• whichever
• whoever

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• whome (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English whom, wham, whem, from Old English hw?m, hw?m, from Proto-Germanic *hwammai, dative case of *hwaz (“who, what”). Cognate with Scots quhom, quham, quhem (“whom”), German wem (“whom, to whom”), Danish hvem (“who, whom”), Swedish vem (“who, whom”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hu?m/

Pronoun

whom (the singular and plural objective case of who)

1. What person or people; which person or people, as the object of a verb.
2. What person or people; which person or people, as the object of a preposition.
3. Him; her; them (used as a relative pronoun to refer to a previously mentioned person or people.)

Usage notes

• Who is a subject pronoun. Whom is an object pronoun. To determine whether a particular sentence uses a subject or an object pronoun, rephrase it to use he/she or him/her instead of who, whom; if you use he or she, then you use the subject pronoun who; if you use him or her, then you use the object pronoun. The same rule applies to whoever and whomever.

• Who can also be used as an object pronoun, especially in informal writing and speech (hence one hears not only whom are you waiting for? but also who are you waiting for?), and whom may be seen as (overly) formal; in some dialects and contexts, it is hardly used, even in the most formal settings. As an exception to this, fronted prepositional phrases almost always use whom, e.g. one usually says with whom did you go?, not *with who did you go?. However, dialects in which whom is rarely used usually avoid fronting prepositional phrases in the first place (for example, using who did you go with?).

• The use of who as an object pronoun is proscribed by many authorities, but is frequent nonetheless. It is usually felt as much more acceptable than the converse hypercorrection in which whom is misused in place of who, as in *the gentleman whom spoke to me.

• For more information, see "who" and "whom" on Wikipedia.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• how'm