There are two words in English that you have heard and probably have used, but one of them may be difficult to use correctly: that would be the word “who”.

Let’s take a look at “who” and “to whom” in more detail and hopefully it will all make sense.

When to use “who”
The word “who” is used as the subject of a sentence, which means that it is a noun, the person the sentence is about, or the person doing the action. It is used as a pronoun. This is the easy word to use correctly in American English.

For example:
Who is that?
Who are you?
Who hit my car?

When to use “who”
The word “to whom” is never the subject, it is always what we call the “object of the award.” This is the word that most people are not sure how to use or when to use it.

For example:
you go with who?
Mark recommended who for the new position?

There are two tricks you can use to know when to use “who” that should help make it easier to use correctly.
1. When “who” is the object of the sentence, you should be able to replace it with “he” or “she”, and the sentence will still be grammatically correct.

For example:
Who did you recommend for the position?
We can also say: Did you recommend him for the position?
Did you recommend her for the position?

The words “who”, “he” and “she” are objects of the verb “recommended”.

2. The word “who” is often used before a preposition. When this happens, we say that “who” is the object of the preposition. Common prepositions that come just before “who” can be “with”, “after”, “before”, “on”, “next to”, “under”, etc.
For example: Who do you drive with?
Are you in line after who?
I don’t know who that package came from.

Now that you know when to use “who” and “who” correctly, it may sound a bit awkward or awkward to use “who” even when it’s technically correct. Why is this? American English is changing, and while the grammatical rules for these two words still apply, the word “whom” is used less and less. It may even eventually disappear from the language altogether. When in doubt, use “who” in a very formal speech situation, especially if other people around you are using it.

As I always say, you can’t go wrong following the grammar rules! It can only depend on “who” you socialize with or “who” is with you!