My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

On the subject of who and the object of whom
‘What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you
yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little.’
L
ORD
B
YRON
*
‘As far as I’m concerned, whom is a word that was invented to make
everyone sound like a butler.’
C
ALVIN
T
RILLIN

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Rule
1:
who =
subject
whom =
object
This is the woman who
swallowed a fly.
The woman swallowed the fly. The woman
is the subject of the verb.
This is the woman
whom the fly choked.
The fly choked the woman. She is now the
object of the verb.
Rule 2: as with other pronouns, the object form is used after a preposition (see
here
):
The people to whom I spoke didn’t seem to know anything about it.
That boy above whom we all towered when we were at school is taller than any of
us now.
Send not to ask for whom the bell tolls.