Wordplay©
Grammar clinic

When to use ‘who’ and ‘whom’ is all about subjects and objects of verbs.

But don’t panic! It’s easier than it sounds.

If you use the word “who”, you should be able to replace it with “he” or “she” and still have the sentence make sense. If you use “whom”, you should be able to replace it with “him” or “her”.

This is how it works:

Who won the prize?

Because:

He won the prize, or she won the prize both make sense.
Him won the prize, or her won the prize don’t make sense.

And:

Whom does she love?

Because:

She loves him/her makes sense.
She loves he/she doesn’t make sense.