“Whom is calling?”
‘Whom’ is the object. Here the caller is doing the calling — they’re the subject.
Usage Entry 04 / 1011 60-second read
Who vs. Whom
Subject versus object — the pronoun doing it versus the pronoun it happens to.
The comparisoni
“Who is calling?”
‘Who’ is the subject — the one performing the action.
More examplesii
01
Who did you give the keys to?
Whom did you give the keys to?
Substitute HIM: ‘You gave the keys to him.’ HIM fits, so it’s WHOM.
02
Whom made this mess?
Who made this mess?
HE made the mess — HE fits, so it’s WHO.
The ruleiii
¶
WHO = subject. WHOM = object.
Swap in HE / HIM. If HE fits, use WHO. If HIM fits, use WHOM. He is calling → Who is calling.
Notesiv
Register
‘Whom’ sounds formal to the modern ear. In conversation, ‘who’ is usually accepted in both slots; in edited prose, the distinction still earns points.
Watch for
With prepositions — ‘to whom,’ ‘for whom,’ ‘with whom’ — ‘whom’ is near-mandatory even in everyday writing.
Memory aidv
Remember it like this
HE and WHO both end in a vowel. HIM and WHOM both end in M.
In the wildvi
Real-world-style usage — how this looks in a sentence people would actually write.
- Whom were you speaking to earlier? (In speech, ‘who were you speaking to?’ is far more common.)
- Ask not for whom the bell tolls — it tolls for thee. (Donne, 1624 — the classic use.)
Test yourselfvii
Which is right for formal writing?