Have you ever paused mid-sentence, wrestling with whether to say 'from whom' or 'from who'? It's a common little hiccup in English, and honestly, it trips up even native speakers sometimes. Let's just chat about it for a moment, like we're grabbing a coffee.
Think about it this way: 'who' and 'whom' are like different outfits for the same person, depending on their role in the sentence. 'Who' is generally the star of the show, the one doing the action – the subject. 'Whom,' on the other hand, is more of a supporting actor, often on the receiving end of an action or, crucially for our discussion, following a preposition.
Prepositions are those little words that connect things – words like 'to,' 'for,' 'with,' and, of course, 'from.' When you have a preposition like 'from,' and you're talking about a person, the word that comes after it needs to be in the 'object' form. And in the 'who/whom' world, 'whom' is the object form.
So, when we say 'This is the scientist ______ we have learned a lot from,' the 'from' is sitting there, waiting for its object. We're learning from the scientist. The scientist isn't doing the learning in this specific clause; they are the source of the learning. That's why 'whom' fits perfectly. It's the object of the preposition 'from.'
Here's a little trick that often helps: try substituting 'he/she' or 'him/her.' If you can replace the word with 'he' or 'she' (the subject forms), then 'who' is likely correct. If you can replace it with 'him' or 'her' (the object forms), then 'whom' is usually the way to go.
Let's try it with our scientist example. If we rephrase the clause, we might say, 'We have learned a lot from him' or 'We have learned a lot from her.' See? 'Him' and 'her' are object pronouns. Because we can use those, 'whom' is the correct choice after 'from.'
It's not about being overly formal, though 'whom' does tend to sound a bit more formal. It's really about the grammatical structure. The preposition 'from' requires an object, and 'whom' is that object pronoun when referring to people.
So, next time you're faced with that little 'from who/whom' dilemma, just remember: 'from' is a preposition, and prepositions like to hang out with object pronouns. And in this case, 'whom' is our object pronoun friend. It's a small detail, but getting it right just makes your sentences sing a little clearer.
