Whoever Would Use Whomever: Read On
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Whoever Would Use Whomever: Read On
Last week we discussed Americans’ odd fondness for whom. It’s a word that few really understand, but it just sounds so darned cosmopolitan.
If we’re infatuated with whom, we’re over the moon about whomever. You hear it everywhere. People love saying it—right or wrong.
Just recently, a major American newspaper ran a headline that said “…whomever that may be.” When the story jumped to a second page, the headline changed to “…whomever it is.” Horrors! In both cases, this was first-degree whomever abuse.
Like that errant headline writer, too many of us think that whoever and whomever mean the same thing—and that whomever is the sexier choice.
To determine whether to use whoever or whomever, last week’s shorthand rule for who and whom applies: he = whoever and him = whomever. Whoever is always a subject; whomever is always an object. That’s why whomever it is and whomever that may be could never be correct. We say he is, not him is, so we must say whoever it is and whoever that may be.
The presence of whoever or whomever indicates a dependent clause, as in this sentence: Give it to whoever asks for it first. (The dependent clause is whoever asks for it first.) You might think the correct word should be whomever, an object pronoun, since you’d say Give it to her or Give it to them. But here is the rule: Always use whoever or whomever to agree with the verb (asks) in that dependent clause, regardless of the rest of the sentence.
I ask for it, he or she asks for it, we or they ask for it. I, he, she, we, and they are subject pronouns. Therefore, Give it to whoever asks for it first.
On the other hand: We will hire whoever/whomever you recommend. Since you recommend me (or him, her, us, them), the right answer is whomever, the object of recommend, the verb in the dependent clause.
So the key is the verb in that dependent clause. Remember that, and may all your whomevers be winners.
POP QUIZ
1. Choose whoever/whomever you prefer.
2. Choose whoever/whomever you think will win.
3. Whoever/whomever is chosen, we must pick wisely.
4. We discussed it with whoever/whomever we figured might be interested.
5. Make sure whoever/whomever you hire turns out to be qualified.
6. Make sure you hire whoever/whomever turns out to be qualified.
POP QUIZ ANSWERS
1. Choose whomever you prefer. (you prefer him)
2. Choose whoever you think will win. (you think I will win)
3. Whoeveris chosen, we must pick wisely. (he is chosen)
4. We discussed it with whoeverwe figured might be interested. (we figured they might be interested)
5. Make sure whomever you hire turns out to be qualified. (you hire him)
6. Make sure you hire whoever turns out to be qualified. (she turns out to be qualified)
If the article or the existing discussions do not address a thought or question you have on the subject, please use the "Comment" box at the bottom of this page.
In the sentence below, should “who” be “whom”? It seems like “whom” would be the object of the preposition “about” or the object in the phrase “they’re serving whom.”
They were feeling a lot of pressure about the makeup of their audience and who they’re serving.
The correct word should be whom because it is the direct object of the verb are serving.
In your example #5, could one make a case for it essentially being:
Make sure (the person) turns out to be qualified?
That would make it a subject of the dependent clause, hence whoever. (cf. Make sure he is qualified). That would assume that “you hire” is a contact clause/relative clause modifying “whoever”.
Make sure (that) the person (that) you hire (is) qualified.
You have restructured the sentence. “Make sure whoever turns out to be qualified” is not a complete sentence, and is therefore not comparable to our sentence in which whomever is the direct object of hire. Your sentence would be grammatically correct if it were “Make sure whoever turns out to be qualified is hired.”
In the example “whoever/whomever that may be”, isn’t ‘that’ the subject? Reversing it gives “That may be…” and ‘whomever’ seems the right completion. By complement: “Whomever that may be.”
If your interpretation of the sentence makes “that” the subject, “whoever” would then become the subject complement, so “whomever,” an object, would be incorrect.
I have a question about the use of “whoever” in your example given on page 13 of The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation. The sentence is as follows: “Give it to whoever/whomever asks for it first.”
The given example is a command so the implied subject is (you); the verb is give; the direct object is it. Then what follows is the preposition to. Why would you not choose “whomever,” which is the objective pronoun, following the preposition “to”?
If you follow the “he=whoever; him=whomever” rule, the preposition to is left hanging in your example. Is this an example of “regardless of the rest of the sentence”? Are you saying the dependent clause takes priority over the hanging “to”?
Yes, that’s the rule: whoever asks for it first is a noun clause. In this case, the object of the preposition is the entire noun clause. Noun clauses must be grammatically correct within themselves, and whomever asks for it first would be incorrect.
I just purchased the 11th edition… Best grammar-and-punctuation guide out there… In studying the ‘who-whom’ section, I didn’t see an example sentence like the following:
√ Give the job to the most-qualified candidate, whoever/whomever it may be.
I think ‘whoever’ is correct because you could say Give the job to him, but that sentence doesn’t contain the ‘whoever-whomever’ clause.
We could also say It may be him, but in this context, him would be wrong because Him may be the most qualified doesn’t make sense. He may be the most qualified and It may be he (not ‘him’) who is the most qualified both make sense; thus, “whoever” is correct to me.
Am I correct with my logic and italicized examples above for arriving at this conclusion? Is whoever, in fact, correct?
Yes, whoever is correct. Your reasoning brought you to the right conclusion.
I don’t understand why “whomever that may be” and “whomever it is” are incorrect. Using the he=whoever and him=whomever rule, you would say, “that may be him” and “it is him.” You wouldn’t say “that may be he” or “it is he.”
In the example you provide, the verb to be is a linking (intransitive) verb, meaning it would take the subjective rather than the objective case. You may wish to review the principles we’ve presented in the subject and object pronoun posts we’ve provided earlier this year. If you go back to I Subject, Your Honor of August 26, 2020, you’ll see that “that may be he” and “It is he” are formally correct.