“Who” and “whom” are relative pronouns, and the trick for choosing the right one is to switch the clause around so that you can substitute a personal pronoun. Personal pronouns have a property called case. “I,” “he,” “she,” “we,” and “they” are in the nominative case, and function as subjects of a sentence or a clause. “Me,” “him,” “her,” “us,” and “them” are in the objective case, and are used as direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of a preposition. Your ear will tell you which personal pronoun is correct.
Then all you have to know is that “who” is nominative and “whom” is objective. When you put the sentence back together, you use “who” if the pronoun was in the nominative case and “whom” if it was in the objective case. “Who” is to “he” as “whom” is to “him,” etc.
Try it at home—it’s safe and easy!
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