in this sentence, WHO or WHOM?

[grammarman]

Thanks!

"It was a great day in which we learned a lot about various enterprises created by new business people, many of WHO will certainly go on to become tomorrow’s big hitters."

[jasminade]

Thanks!

"It was a great day in which we learned a lot about various enterprises created by new business people, many of WHO will certainly go on to become tomorrow’s big hitters."

"Whom". As it refers to the object of what "we learned".

In English grammar, "who" refers to the subject. Where you are looking for / referring to a noun/pronoun form. "Whom" refers to an object, an object of a verb or a preposition.

So "who" is a nominative pronoun that acts like a subject of a verb (Who are you?) and a direct object, is the object of the verb (Whom did you callyesterday?), or a preposition (He is the person to whom I gave the money).

In your mind, just think of subject/object. I hope it helps.

[shlee]

Whom in the sentence seems to refer to new business people, and it is followed by an explanation of what they will become, i.e. tomorrow's big hitters...Whom is the correct usage in the sentence...

[Peter Easton]

'Whom' is correct but actually in this context the use of 'whom' has nothing to do with object pronouns. It's just the fact that it's preceded by a preposition.

For example:

'... many of WHOM will certainly go on to become tomorrow’s big hitters.'

'Of' being the preposition and 'whom' being the pronoun.

I would usually put the preposition at the end of the sentence and say '...who will certainly go on to become the big hitters of tomorrow.'

It's just more modern and direct English. Nobody uses 'whom' anymore except in the above case. You really need never use it unless it's used when a preposition precedes a pronoun.