Friday, September 21, 2007

Who - Whom

My daughter came to me and asked me, "What is the difference between 'who' and 'whom'?"

I started with some usage example, "She is a girl, who likes to ....", and "She was awarded, on whom there was .."

It is clear that one conveys the "active" principle denoting as a "subject", and the other "passive" principle, denoting as an "object".

In Sanskrit, for example, there is a rule that adds "am" or "m" to make a Male/Female "Subjective" into "Objective". Like "Baalak(ah)" to "Baalakam", and "Baalikaa" to "Baalikaam".