Bintang D' Twinklestars

Introduction

    Certain English words can be confusing for English-language students because they sound alike, or have similar spellings. Three common ones are whom, whose and who.

Who

    To make an adjective clause, we can change pronoun to who. Because who is a subject pronoun. Look at the examples below:

    - The pattern is: who + verb + object.

    - Main clause + subordinate (adjective) clause:

Examples :       

    - I know the man Who helps your mom.

    - She hates that boy who stands behind you.

    - The man who lives next to me is friendly.

Whom

 - Whom is an object pronoun

    A clause is a group of words which include a subject and a verb. There are two types.  Main clauses, which begin with a capital letter and end with a period or other form of punctuation, can stand alone as complete sentences. Subordinate clauses on the other hand, cannot stand alone as complete sentences. Instead, they give more information about a noun or verb in the main clause. Whom is a relative pronoun used to introduce subordinate clauses that refer to people, not things, as in example sentences below. Because it is an object pronoun, whom cannot be the subject of a subordinate clause. 

The pattern is: whom + subject + verb.

Main clause + subordinate (adjective) clause:

Example :        Isn't he the man whom we saw earlier.

Whom with a preposition

    Whom is often used with a preposition, as in the example sentences below. Whether the preposition comes at the beginning of a clause or at the end makes no difference to the meaning of the clause. However, placing the the preposition at the beginning makes it more formal.

Examples : 

   - That is the man about whom we spoke. (more formal)

   - That is the man whom we spoke about. (less formal)

   - She is the girl for whom I buy this book. (more formal)

   - She is the girl whom I buy this book for.(less formal)

Whose

    Whose is also a relative pronoun that introduces subordinate clauses, as in the example below. Whose is used to show possession.

Main clause + subordinate (adjective) clause:

Examples : 

That's the student whose essay I corrected last night.

He is the man whose car is broken.

        - Expressions of Quantity with “Whom” and “Whose”

Both whom and whose can be used in expressions of quantity plus “of”, such as those listed below. See the example sentences which follow.

For example:

      - There are 16 students in my class, all of whom are very friendly.

      - I belong to a literary club, most of whose members are teachers.