5-Minute English: WHO, WHOM, WHOSE, WHO’S

Today's lesson is on the word "who" and the other forms of that word. "Whom", "whose",

and also this one, "who's", okay? So, first of all, "who" is the subject of the sentence,

okay? So, you use it for the subject. So, for example, if you ask the question, "Who

is that man? Who is that man?" So, that man is the subject. He is. Who is that man? That's

used as the subject, okay?

The second one, "whom", this isn't used so much in modern day English, especially in

spoken English now. You'd see it more often in writing, in more formal writing. But even

in writing, people often put "who" instead of "whom". So, when this is the object of

the sentence, if people are being really correct, they will still put "whom" as the object form,

but people, you know, they don't always do that. If they're writing more informally,

they will still put "who" if it's the object. So, it's not cut and dried at all. It's not

black and white. Because it sounds very old-fashioned nowadays, very formal, and people will think,

"Oh, what a strange person saying 'whom'. Who does he think he is?" You know. It's not...

It doesn't give a very nice impression, not very friendly sounding. So, if I... If I said

to someone, "The man whom I met", if I spoke it in conversation, they would think, "Oh,

that's strange", because normally people would either say, "The man who I met", and it sounds

okay in conversation, or just, "The man I met". You don't even need to put the word

in. "The man I met at the party", that's "the man I met at the party". I wouldn't say...

If they said, "Who is that man?", "Oh, that's the man whom I met at the party." People wouldn't

say it like that nowadays. It sounds very odd. Even if it's correct, it's almost too

correct. So, "The man I met", "The man who I met", it's okay in conversation.

Okay, so then this one, this... We're back to the words that are used a lot more. So,

"this", spelt like this, is the possessive form, so belonging to, something belonging

to somebody. So, you might say you see a car, and you say, "Whose car is that? Who does

that car belong to?" And then we've got this one, which also sounds the same, "whose",

and this is where a lot of confusion arises, even with native English speakers, because

I often see on social media, for example, people put "whose" with an apostrophe "s"

when they actually mean "whose" possessive, which is spelt like this with no apostrophe.

So, "whose" is a contraction, and it's... It means "who is", okay? "Who is", okay? So

the apostrophe there represents the missing "i". "Who is", "whose", okay? So, you can

ask the question, "Who's going to the party?", "Who is going to the party?" But you wouldn't

say it in full, "Who is going to the party?" because it's not informal enough for spoken

English. So, "Who's going?", "Who's going to the party?" Okay? So that's it, really.

So just four forms of the word "who", "whom", "whose", and "whose". Thank you for watching,

and hope to see you again soon. Okay. Bye for now.