"Who" is used only in the subject slot of a clause.

Both of the following are DOs:

Whom did the dog chase?

Or 

The dog did chase whom?

Christine Gray 



-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of DD Farms
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2006 3:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Who / Whom

At 02:25 PM 7/15/2006, Roberto Perez wrote:
>I'm creating a handout to introduce the Direct Object Pronoun to my 
>class. I gave it to some colleagues to proofread, and a debate 
>started over whether "whom" or "who" should be used in the 
>explanations. This is an excerpt of the text:
>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>You can identify the direct object by asking the question "what?" or
"whom?"
>[...]
>...a direct object can also be the person we are referring to. So, 
>in a sentence like:
>"The dog chased Alice"
>"Alice", the person we are referring to, is the direct object. 
>"Whom" did the dog chase? Alice.
>Similarly, in the sentence:
>"The car hit Andrew",
>  "Andrew" is the direct object. "Whom" did the car hit? Andrew.
>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>Several colleagues corrected me by saying the DO pronoun responds to 
>the question "who", not "whom", and that the two examples are 
>grammatically incorrect: they should read "Who did the dog chase" 
>and "Who did the car hit". . . .

DD: No certified Grammar Expert, but, "Who did the dog chase?" 
implies there was a chase by somebody after a dog. As one speaking 
high standard, "whom" sounds better.

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