WHOM AND WHOSE

● Who has two other forms, the object form whom and the
possessive form whose
WHOM
● We use whom in formal styles or on writing to refer to people
when the person is the object of the verb. It is much more
common in writing than in speaking

Eg: The witnesses whom I interviewed gave conflicting

evidence.

This pronoun can also be used to refer to animals that are mentioned
by name and seen as person.
 Confusion
● The relative pronoun who may cause confusion with whom
because it has both a subject form and an object form

- Key: See what pronoun is doing in its own clause

• Use whom if the pronoun is the object of the verb in the dependent
clause
Eg: The cousin whom we met at the family reunion is coming to visit
.
Whom + preposition
● Use whom as the complement of a preposition . When whom have
a preposition, the preposition can come at the beginning of the
clause :
Eg : I had an uncle in Germany, from whom I inherited a bit of
money.

Or at the end of the clause :

Eg : I had an uncle in Germany, whom I inherited a bit of money
from.
Whom with numbers and quantities

● Use quantities and numbers with relative pronoun whom like: all of
whom , many of whom, one of whom,…. etc.

Eg: She has three brothers, two of whom are in army now.
WHOSE
● We usually use whose as a relative pronoun to indicate possession
by people and animals, we can also use it for things.
Eg: The tree whose branches shade my kitchen window is an oak.

● We use whose before nouns instead of a possessive expression in

both defining and non-defining clauses :
Eg: He’s marrying a girl whose family don’t seem to like him.
Whose + preposition

● We can use whose + noun as the complement of a preposition.

● Put the preposition immediately before the relative pronoun whose

or at the end of the relative clause. But put it before whose is more
formal in written styles.

Eg: I now turn to Freud, from whose work the following quotation
is taken.