WHOOOO? or WHOOOOM?

It is often difficult to decide when to use WHO and when to use WHOM. Fortunately, this is not as frequent a problem in contemporary usage, but it still comes up from time to time.

The basic rule is that WHO goes in the subject slot and WHOM goes in the object slot. You have simple sentences like these:

Who is in charge of this project?

To whom were you speaking?

Things get a little muddier when you have a complex sentence where WHO or WHOM is part of a secondary clause. Look at this example from a recent Letter to the Editor in a local newspaper:

We also need to censure whomever drafted and carried out these terrible decisions.

At first glance (which is probably all the letter writer gave it), this appears to be correct. "WHOMEVER" seems to be the object of the preposition "to."

Actually, it is the WHOLE SECONDARY CLAUSE "whoever drafted and carried out these terrible decisions" that is the object of "to." Therefore, "whoever" is the SUBJECT of that secondary clause.

The sentence should read as follows:

We also need to censure whoever drafted and carried out these terrible decisions.

By the way, you should also be careful about the words "censure," "censor," and "sensor." They have very different meanings. Check your dictionary. If you'd like a post about using them, please send me a comment.