Who and Whom difference? - correction to question

Question

Sorry the question should have readIn my part the UK we never use 'whom' only 'who' so I'm lost as to when to use 'Qui est-ce que' and when to use 'Qui est-ce qui'. Could you please help.

Answer

Hi Stewart - yes, increasingly 'whom' is disappearing from use in English, however it's well worth understanding the difference as it will help with you comprehension of French enormously. It's not difficult to grasp because it's the same distinction as 'he' versus 'him' so if you substitute one of those words into a sentence you can usually see which it ought to be.

Sometimes you have to change the order a bit to do this: For example: 
"[Who/whom] should I give the apples to?" -> Should I give the apples to HIM (obviously not "he") therefore Should I give the apples to him, and therefore "To whom should I give the apples?"

Once you grasp that "whom" is plays the same role in a sentence as "him" and "who" the same role as "he" it becomes pretty easy to see which one is/ought to be used. [the grammar terms for these are relative subject and relative object pronouns if you want to read further].

In French, this distinction is very important, not disappearing at all, so by tapping into an older style / formal English you get a lot of value back.

Hopefully that makes sense?

Answer

It is a common trait of Romance languages that they are weak on nominal cases but strong on tenses. English, as well, has lost most traces of noun declension. One of the remaining traces is the difference between "who" and "whom". In short, the difference is that "who" is used for the subject and "whom" for the object. One simple test is to replace the person in question with "I" or "me". If "I" is the correct form, then you should use "who". If it is "me", then "whom" is correct. Here are some examples:

Anne met me at the beach. -- Anne met whom at the beach? (me --> whom)
I met Marc at the movies. -- Who met Marc at the movies? (I--> who)

In "Qui est-ce qui..." the second "qui" is the subject of the following clause, hence you would translate it as "who". On the other hand, in "Qui est-ce que..." the "que" is the object of what follows, so you need "whom" in English. Again, let's demonstrate how this works using an example or two:

Who is playing the piano? -- Qui est-ce qui joue du piano? (qui is the subject)
Whom are you waiting for? -- Qui est-ce que tu attends? (que is the object)

I hope that helps a bit.

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

Answer

Ah, Gruff's excellent post appeared just as I was writing mine. Sorry.

-- Chris.

Answer

Hi Gruff ... thank you for a great explanation.

Answer

Normally after « qui » in a sentence, you have a verb. Qui est là ? Qui t’intéresses? Paul m’intéresse.

Normally after « que » in a sentence, you have a noun or object. Qu’est ce que tu désires? C’est de la glace que je voudrais.

Exemples:

Jean, c’est quelqu’un que j’admire. MAIS. Jean, c’est quelqu’un qui aime son travail.

Le restaurant qu’elle aime est fermé.

C’est quelqu’un que tu n’as jamais rencontré.

C’est toujours toi qui as raison.

Avec toi, c’est toujours moi qui ai tort.

Dans ce film, il y a un acteur que je déteste

Est-ce que ses exemples t’aident un peu. Je sais que mon explication n’est pas la meilleure, mais ça aide à écrire correctement des phrases. Qui est un sujet de la phrase ou la question, tandis que que représente un objet dans la phrase.

Bon courage et bonne continuation!