Pronouns - Whom, Whose, and Who’s

Pronouns
- Whom, Whose, and Who’s




Whom, Whose, and Who’s


Introduction



Certain English words can be confusing for ESL students because they
sound alike, or have similar spellings. Three common ones are
whom,

whose and
who’s.
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.


Isn't he the man
whom we saw earlier.

main clause
+ subordinate (adjective) clause

I know
whom you talked to.


main clause
+ subordinate (noun) clause




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.


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

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







Note:
In informal spoken English, we are less likely
to use whom. For example:

That is the man
who(m) we spoke about.


Whose



Whose is an object pronoun




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

whose cannot be the subject of the clause.



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

main clause + subordinate (adjective) clause

Do you know
whose car that is?

main clause
+ subordinate (adjective) clause



Note:
Whose is not always used
to introduce a subordinate clause. It can also be used simply as a
question word. For example:

Whose pen is this?




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.

both of	a lot of	several of	none of
some of	a few of	a number of	half of
most of	all of	two of	many of

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.


Who’s




Unlike
whom and
whose,

who’s is not a single word, but rather, a contraction for

who + is. (Who is relative pronoun which, unlike whom
or whose, can be the subject of a subordinate clause.) See the example
sentence.


Do you know
who's giving the lecture today?


main clause

+ subordinate (noun) clause



Who’s can also be used to ask a question, as in this
example.

Who’s giving the lecture today?