 Who or Whom from espressoenglish.net. A lot of students ask me about the difference between who and whom. This is something that a lot of native English speakers confuse as well, but I'll explain it in today's lesson. Who is the subject of the verb? The subject performs the action. For example, who ate the last piece of pizza? Who is the subject and ate is the verb? Here's another example. The students who failed the test will need extra help. The students and who are the subject and failed is the verb. The word whom functions as the object of the verb. The object receives the action or is acted upon. For example, Bob gave the money to whom. Bob is the subject. Bob performed the action of giving. Gabe is the verb. Money is the direct object and whom is the indirect object, the recipient of the action. The word whom is always used after a preposition. For example, my three brothers, one of whom is a doctor, live in New York. Of is a preposition and after it we use whom, not who. Here's another example. With whom did you go to the movies? With is a preposition, so we say with whom, not with who. Here's one more. That's the employee at whom I yelled. Again we have a preposition at and after the preposition we use whom. I no longer speak to the person from whom I got this gift. From is the preposition and after the preposition we use whom. So now you've learned that who is the subject of the verb, whom is the object of the verb and we always use whom after a preposition, not who. But there's a big exception in spoken English. In everyday speaking we often use who, not whom and we end sentences with prepositions even when it is technically incorrect. So for example, when speaking casually in everyday English we would say the sentences in the previous examples like this. Who did Bob give the money to? Who did you go to the movies with? That's the employee who I yelled at. I no longer speak to the person who I got this gift from. Even though it's not technically correct to end a sentence with the preposition we still tend to do it in spoken English. Remember that the grammar rules of spoken English are a little more flexible. This lesson about the difference between who and whom was a free sample from the e-book, 600 plus Confusing English Words Explained available at espressoenglish.net. It has more than 200 pages and over 5 hours of audio to help you master these confusing words.