Will someone please be Toby?

by **Nov1907** Sat Oct 20, 2007 1:47 am

How will the difference between who and whom be tested on the GMAT ? Some material I read recommends turning the statement into a question and checking if the answer will be a he/she (indicating who is correct) or her/him (indicating whom is correct).

by **RonPurewal** Sat Oct 20, 2007 2:37 am

Who's Toby? I must be missing something.

The advice you've read is valid: 'whom' is an object pronoun, like 'him' or 'them'. --> To whom was the award given? It was given to him. Who received the award? He received it.

'Turning the statement into a question': sure, that can work, although a large proportion of sentences containing 'who'/'whom' will already be questions (because 'who' and 'whom' are classic question words). More importantly, if the 'who'/'whom' is in a clause of a larger sentence, remove that clause from the sentence and check it on its own (without the added burden of the rest of the sentence being dragged along).

by **Nov1907** Sat Oct 20, 2007 12:27 pm

Thanks Ron. Great explanation as usual! The Toby thing was a reference to a TV show where they were discussing what the correct usage of who/whom. It made me feel like my GMAT preparation was following me even when during my study breaks. I guess my questions were for statements like the 2 below. Just making them up, so please let me know if the way I understood it is correct.

1. Einstein, who discovered the theory of relativity, studied at the Swiss federal Polytechnic.

2. My sister, to whom I gave my pen, promptly proceeded to lose it.

by **RonPurewal** Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:31 am

Your sample sentences use who/whom correctly, yes. But #2 has a tense problem: you should say '...to whom I HAD GIVEN my pen...', because that action was completed before the subsequent action (she lost it), and its done-ness is an essential prerequisite for the subsequent action.