For whom are you acting?—-object of preposition, so it is objective case.

But what if you want to end the sentence with a preposition?

Who are you acting for?—-This one seems correct because it is a linking verb, so it should be the nominative case

Whom are you acting for?—-This one therefore seems incorrect, but in the first sentence, it is WHOM.

I’m almost certain it’s because of the question form. That is, the verb ‘are’ has been moved infront of ‘you’ but it actually isn’t a linking verb; it is a helping verb: are acting

For whom are you acting? [object of preposition, so it is objective case]

Yes.

But what if you want to end the sentence with a preposition?

Doesn’t matter. Whom is still an object and is correct, wherever it appears in the sentence.

Who are you acting for? [This one seems correct because it is a linking verb, so it should be the nominative case.]

Are is not a linking verb. You [subject] are acting [verb - present progressive] for whom. [prep phrase]

I would never say or write “You are acting for whom?” But it is grammatically correct. The other sentence is not.

If you look into Betty AZAR (not the final word, I know), you will see that she says that Who are you working for and Whom are you working for and finally, For whom are your working are all considered correct. I think she takes the position that what the street speaks becomes the correct form. Who do you work for? seems to be the most common form that one hears today.

If you look into Betty AZAR (not the final word, I know), you will see that she says that Who are you working for and Whom are you working for and finally, For whom are your working are all considered correct. I think she takes the position that what the street speaks becomes the correct form. Who do you work for? seems to be the most common form that one hears today.

If you read one paragraph of Elizabethan English, you have to agree somewhat with Betty Azar and other proponents of language change. However, knowing when something becomes accepted by educated speakers and not knowing grammar are two different things. Also, it is possible to be correct and not sound antiquated. If it sounds stilted, rewrite.

Welcome to the forum.

Whom or Who is probably one thing I will never learn even when im old. I never understood the difference in school…or now, 10 years later for that matter

Whom or Who is probably one thing I will never learn even when im old. I never understood the difference in school…or now, 10 years later for that matter.

We could fix that.

Pronouns have a case—except for the pronouns This, That, These, Those, and Which.

There are three cases: possessive, nominative (subject), objective.

In the case of Who/whom/whose, WHOSE is possessive; WHOM is objective case; and WHO is subject case.

If you can look at any sentence and identify the clauses within it, then you are half way there.

For example, here is how to determine the subjective case:

If the pronoun (who/whom/whose) is the subject of the clause—that is, the one performing the action of the verb—then use WHO:

The man who walks up and down the halls each night is going to pay.

First, identify the clauses.

The man is going to pay=Main Clause
who walks up and down the halls=relative/dependent clause

Looking at the dependent clause, you should notice that the pronoun is the subject, because it performs the action of walking. Thus, it is a subject pronoun.

That is an example of how to determine the subject case, anyway.

Thanks for this. Sometimes I can get them so confused.