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© Copyright 2001, Jim Loy
Nowadays, people often use "who" when they should use "whom." "Who" is a pronoun of the nominative case. That just means that it takes the place of a noun, and is used as the subject of a sentence, as in "Who eats?" Such a sentence is usually a question, by the way. The other example of the nominative case is called a predicate nominative: "She is who?" This may be expressed as an algebraic formula: she=who? (similar to "I am Jim," or I=Jim).
Other uses of a pronoun (including "whom") are all objective case. These are direct object, object of a preposition, or indirect object. Let's start with direct object: "Who hit whom?" Here "who" is the subject and "whom" is the direct object (receiver of action). Words like "to," "of," "for," etc. are prepositions. A preposition has an object: "to Jim," or "to whom." Then there is the indirect object: "Who gave whom the money?" Here "whom" is the indirect object.
Other pronouns also differ, depending upon the case. "He hit him," or "He gave it to him." In both of those sentences, "he" is nominative, and "him" is objective. We normally get those right, while messing up "who and whom." So it might help you to substitute "he" (or some other nominative case pronoun) for "who," and "him" for "whom," just to see how it sounds. Instead of "of whom" say "of him." You would never say "of he." So that may be a good guide for you.
Generally, the use of "who" and "whom" is fairly straightforward.