Who or Whom?

Hello Winders, welcome to English Forums!

Only the second version is correct:

1. And who might that be?

"Who might that be?" is a modal version of:

2. Who is that?

(You would never say "Whom is that?")

MrP

That's a good point. Oddly enough, some people would say that it should be "he", in such cases; cf.

1. "This is he/she." (on answering the phone)

This is because the verb "to be" doesn't properly take an object: both sides of the equation in a sentence such as #1 relate to the subject.

 But in idiomatic usage, we do indeed say:

2. That's him!

3. Is that them at the door?

etc.

It's an interesting discrepancy.

MrP

Winders wrote:

Thanks. Let me query futher..... What about the he/she and him/her rule? Might that be he? or: Might that be him? Since "him" is correct, wouldn't that make it whom since it goes with him and who goes with he??

Where did you come up with the idea that him is "correct" here? Just because some people use it does not make it somehow "correct", unless by correct you mean acceptable to some people sometimes. Furthermore, why do you care about the word whom and ask when it is correct. The word whom is an ancient relic that is on its way out of use. I predict that it will disappear from the English language, an easy prediction considering its lapse into disuse. People who grow up in the United States are often indoctrinated with how the word whom is somehow more correct than who. If you want to be a pedantic, or if you were so indoctrinated, then feel free to use it. If not, why bother getting into such a habit?

Here's a slightly different view:

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who(m) in questions

Whom is not often used in informal English. We prefer to use who as an object, especially in questions.

Who did they arrest?
Who did you go with?

We use  whom in a more formal style; and we must use whom after a preposition.

Whom did they arrest? (formal)
With whom did you go? (very formal)

Swan, Practical English Usage, p. 435
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