Reader's question: When do you use whom?

Answer: You could be forgiven for thinking whom is vanishing from the language, but it does still have a place. We use whom to refer to a person previously mentioned in a sentence when they are the object, not the subject.

The man who won the prize didn't come. (The man won the prize.)
The man whom I invited to the party couldn't come. (I invited the man.)

To use the grammatical term, whom is a relative pronoun when it refers to a noun preceding it. If you use whom in a question, it becomes an interrogative pronoun.

Whom does he most admire? (Whom is still the object.)

I think this usage may be declining. I think it is OK to say:

Who does he admire most?

Further reading
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