manhattan gmat sentence correction who v.s whom

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resilient: Legendary Member; Posts: 789; Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 1:25 amFollowed by: 6 members; Location: Southern California, USA; Thanked: 15 times

by resilient » Sun Jan 27, 2008 6:30 pm

Can anyone explain the difference between WHO and WHOM? I am dont understand the lesson explained from manhattan gmat.

Appetite for 700 and I scraped my plate!

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun Jan 27, 2008 6:30 pm

simplyjat: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 423; Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2007 1:29 amFollowed by: 2 members; Location: Hyderabad, India; Thanked: 36 times; GMAT Score:770

by simplyjat » Sun Jan 27, 2008 9:17 pm

Who is subjective and whom is objective....
Subject is a noun which performs the actions, Object is the noun on which the action is performed....

Who is that guy playing football...
Whom are you going to marry...

simplyjat

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Stuart@KaplanGMAT: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3225; Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:40 pmFollowed by: 614 members; Location: Toronto; Thanked: 1710 times; GMAT Score:800

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Sun Jan 27, 2008 9:38 pm

Who refers to the subject of a sentence; whom refers to the object of a sentence.

For example:

(1) The person who is walking in front of me is really slow.

or

(2) The person to whom I'm speaking is hard of hearing.

A simple test you can use to decide on who vs whom is to turn the sentence into a question and answer it with a pronoun. If you answer with he or she, then who is correct; if you answer with him or her, then whom is correct.

Looking back at the two examples above:

(1) Who is walking in front of me? He is (so who is correct).

(2) To whom am I speaking? I'm speaking to him (so whom is correct).

Stuart Kovinsky | Kaplan GMAT Faculty | Toronto

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Koala: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 15; Joined: Fri Dec 03, 2010 11:13 am; Thanked: 1 times

by Koala » Fri Dec 03, 2010 11:40 am

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:Who refers to the subject of a sentence; whom refers to the object of a sentence.

For example:

(1) The person who is walking in front of me is really slow.

or

(2) The person to whom I'm speaking is hard of hearing.

A simple test you can use to decide on who vs whom is to turn the sentence into a question and answer it with a pronoun. If you answer with he or she, then who is correct; if you answer with him or her, then whom is correct.

Looking back at the two examples above:

(1) Who is walking in front of me? He is (so who is correct).

(2) To whom am I speaking? I'm speaking to him (so whom is correct).

Great rule, thanks!

However, could you tell why then the answer to th following is the one with "whom" :
Elderly patients, many who take expensive brand-name medications daily, could reduce their medical costs by switching to generic drugs and making lifestyle changes.
A) many who
B) many of them who
C) and many of them who
D) many of whom
E) many of which

If we apply your rule, we should ask the question : who are people who toake expensive brand-name mediactions daily?
The answer to the question should be (unless I'm wrong) They are.

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Stuart@KaplanGMAT: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3225; Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:40 pmFollowed by: 614 members; Location: Toronto; Thanked: 1710 times; GMAT Score:800

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Fri Dec 03, 2010 5:14 pm

Koala wrote:
Great rule, thanks!

However, could you tell why then the answer to th following is the one with "whom" :
Elderly patients, many who take expensive brand-name medications daily, could reduce their medical costs by switching to generic drugs and making lifestyle changes.
A) many who
B) many of them who
C) and many of them who
D) many of whom
E) many of which

If we apply your rule, we should ask the question : who are people who toake expensive brand-name mediactions daily?
The answer to the question should be (unless I'm wrong) They are.

It's because of the idiomatic phrase "many of them".

You're correct that we can answer the question "who takes it" with "they do". However, we can also answer the question with "many of them do" - we wouldn't say "many of they do". Since we say "many of them", we also say "many of whom".

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smarpangmat: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2010 2:27 am

by smarpangmat » Sat Dec 04, 2010 1:05 am

So what is wrong with option " B". Does it Create Redundancy ?

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gmat1978: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 35; Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 7:38 pm

by gmat1978 » Thu Mar 10, 2011 8:21 pm

Can you please help with the following question:

Presenters at the seminar, one who is blind, will demonstrate adaptive equipment that allows visually impaired people to use computers.

a) one who
b) one of them who
c) and one of them who
d) one of whom
e) one of which

If I ask the question - Who are presenting at the seminar - the answer would be "they (presenters) are". In this case, can we not use "one who" as the answer choice. Should I be using "many of them" idiomatic phrase in this scenario? If so then the answer would be "many of them (presenters) are presenting".

Looking at both the possible answers - "they (presenters) are presenting" and "many of them (presenters) are presenting" - can you please tell me what answer should I pick in what scenario.

Also, can you please explain why answer choice b is wrong.

Thanks

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:
Koala wrote:
Great rule, thanks!

However, could you tell why then the answer to th following is the one with "whom" :
Elderly patients, many who take expensive brand-name medications daily, could reduce their medical costs by switching to generic drugs and making lifestyle changes.
A) many who
B) many of them who
C) and many of them who
D) many of whom
E) many of which

If we apply your rule, we should ask the question : who are people who toake expensive brand-name mediactions daily?
The answer to the question should be (unless I'm wrong) They are.
It's because of the idiomatic phrase "many of them".

You're correct that we can answer the question "who takes it" with "they do". However, we can also answer the question with "many of them do" - we wouldn't say "many of they do". Since we say "many of them", we also say "many of whom".

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Stuart@KaplanGMAT: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3225; Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:40 pmFollowed by: 614 members; Location: Toronto; Thanked: 1710 times; GMAT Score:800

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:58 pm

gmat1978 wrote:Can you please help with the following question:

Presenters at the seminar, one who is blind, will demonstrate adaptive equipment that allows visually impaired people to use computers.

a) one who
b) one of them who
c) and one of them who
d) one of whom
e) one of which

If I ask the question - Who are presenting at the seminar - the answer would be "they (presenters) are". In this case, can we not use "one who" as the answer choice. Should I be using "many of them" idiomatic phrase in this scenario? If so then the answer would be "many of them (presenters) are presenting".

Looking at both the possible answers - "they (presenters) are presenting" and "many of them (presenters) are presenting" - can you please tell me what answer should I pick in what scenario.

Also, can you please explain why answer choice b is wrong.

Thanks

Hi,

"one who is" definitely sounds weird in this sentence; idiomatically, we should say "one of whom is" instead.

The main problem with "one" is that it doesn't agree with "presenters"; one what? On the other hand, "one OF whom" refers properly back to the group.

"one of them who is blind" contains way more words than necessary - a GMAT no-no. It also just sounds very awkward.

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kapoor.divs: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 7; Joined: Sat Aug 14, 2010 3:34 am

by kapoor.divs » Tue May 10, 2011 2:36 am

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:
gmat1978 wrote:Can you please help with the following question:

Presenters at the seminar, one who is blind, will demonstrate adaptive equipment that allows visually impaired people to use computers.

a) one who
b) one of them who
c) and one of them who
d) one of whom
e) one of which

If I ask the question - Who are presenting at the seminar - the answer would be "they (presenters) are". In this case, can we not use "one who" as the answer choice. Should I be using "many of them" idiomatic phrase in this scenario? If so then the answer would be "many of them (presenters) are presenting".

Looking at both the possible answers - "they (presenters) are presenting" and "many of them (presenters) are presenting" - can you please tell me what answer should I pick in what scenario.

Also, can you please explain why answer choice b is wrong.

Thanks
Hi,

"one who is" definitely sounds weird in this sentence; idiomatically, we should say "one of whom is" instead.

The main problem with "one" is that it doesn't agree with "presenters"; one what? On the other hand, "one OF whom" refers properly back to the group.

"one of them who is blind" contains way more words than necessary - a GMAT no-no. It also just sounds very awkward.

Hi Stuart,

So, does this mean that this question is an exception to the him/he rule?

Is there any way of recognizing such exceptions?

Thanks

Regards,
Divya

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EducationAisle: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 434; Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:42 pmFollowed by: 46 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 91 times

by EducationAisle » Tue May 10, 2011 3:13 am

An easier way would be to just remember that pronouns in prepositional phrases always take the object form.

of marks the start of the prepositional phrase and so, the object form whom needs to be used. who, the subject form of pronouns, is not acceptable.

Ashish
MBA - ISB, GMAT - 99th Percentile
GMAT Faculty @ EducationAisle
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Stuart@KaplanGMAT: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3225; Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:40 pmFollowed by: 614 members; Location: Toronto; Thanked: 1710 times; GMAT Score:800

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Tue May 10, 2011 5:30 am

kapoor.divs wrote:Hi Stuart,

So, does this mean that this question is an exception to the him/he rule?

Is there any way of recognizing such exceptions?

Thanks

Regards,
Divya

Hi!

Not at all - we'd say "one of them is blind", not "one of they is blind"; since you'd use "them" over "they", you know to use "whom" over "who".

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kapoor.divs: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 7; Joined: Sat Aug 14, 2010 3:34 am

by kapoor.divs » Tue May 10, 2011 7:14 am

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:
kapoor.divs wrote:Hi Stuart,

So, does this mean that this question is an exception to the him/he rule?

Is there any way of recognizing such exceptions?

Thanks

Regards,
Divya
Hi!

Not at all - we'd say "one of them is blind", not "one of they is blind"; since you'd use "them" over "they", you know to use "whom" over "who".

Hi,

got it!

I guess I misunderstood :roll:

Thanks!!

regards,
Divya

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SwatiAgarwal: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 11; Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:42 pm

by SwatiAgarwal » Sun Aug 14, 2011 1:17 am

Here is one more observation -- > If we are talking about a sample of people from a collection then use "whom", as it denotes belongingness.
For exampls in both questions above --
1) one of the presenter from the group of presenters
2) many elderly patients from the group of all elderly patients

but if it is not a collective noun like in the other examples above --
The person, who I was taking to, ....
who is the direct reference to the other person.

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:
kapoor.divs wrote:Hi Stuart,

So, does this mean that this question is an exception to the him/he rule?

Is there any way of recognizing such exceptions?

Thanks

Regards,
Divya
Hi!

Not at all - we'd say "one of them is blind", not "one of they is blind"; since you'd use "them" over "they", you know to use "whom" over "who".

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