Look Good in Print

Figuring out the correct use of who and whom can give you a brain cramp. Although the use of "whom" is in decline, skilled writers correctly use who v. whom and whoever v. whomever. You already have the tools to understand this idea: "who" and "whoever" stand in for subjects; "whom" and "whomever," for objects.

The main complication arises when "who(m)ever" functions as both the object and the subject in the same sentence. Here’s an example: 

The pronoun is the object of the preposition "to," and the subject of the clause "who(m)ever answers the phone".  In such instances, the subjective case wins. Use "whoever".  

Now consider this sentence:

In this example, "whomever" is the object of the preposition "to" and thus belongs in the objective case.

This MCom video further clarifies the correct use of who and whom.