The committee was instructed to award the money

Question

The committee was instructed to award the money  to whomever it thought  had contributed most to the advancement of the community.

A. to whomever it thought
B. to whoever it thought
C. to the person whom it thought
D. to whomever
E. to him whom it thought

Could experts please shade a light on usage of Who Vs Whom. I selected option A however the OA is B.
Would he helpful if someone could explain more on how to differentiate between who and whom. I know that we use Who for Subject pronouns whereas Whom for Object pronouns. I applied the same concept here as in "committee" = the subject and "whomever" =the object.
Please let me know where am I wrong.

Regards
KI.

pqhai · Accepted Answer

I'm 100% sure B is wrong, A is correct.
 
 Who vs. Whom.

Who:   you refer to a   subject   ==> After "who/whoever", there is a VERB, not another subject. For example: I talked to a professor who graduated from UCLA. ( The professor is subject of the second clause ).

Whom  : you refer to an   object   ==> After "whom/whomever, there is another subject. For example: Jones is the man  whom  I went fishing  with  last spring. ( I went fishing with him. ) (Jones is object).

Hope it helps

MKS · Answer

what, I can add is -

]"committee" = is the subject of thought (committee/it thought) and now we have to decide between "whomever" =the object and "whoever" =the subject->
had contributed most to the advancement of the community.
It will be the subject had contributed ...

Hope it helps !

dshuvendu · Answer

Kindly go through the blog : https://gmatclub.com/blog/2010/02/%E2%80%9Cwho%E2%80%9D-vs-%E2%80%9Cwhom%E2%80%9D-in-gmat-sentence-correction/ . The ANSWER to the question should be A. I doubt your source. Applying the technique - "THE COMMITTEE WAS INSTRUCTED TO AWARD THE MONEY TO  THEM . Experts kindly assist if there is a flaw in the logic

aniteshgmat1101 · Answer

Hi,
According to my understanding, while we use "who" for the Doer (person or thing) of associated verb, "whom" is used for someone/something on which action is done.
Ex:
1) Who is the father of nation?
- Here Who is doer of action "is".
2) The person, who is the Father of Nation, is Mahatma Gandhi.
- Here also who is doer of verb "is".
BUT,
3) The person, "whom" you hold to be the Father of Nation, is Mahatma Gandhi.
- Here verb/ action "hold" is done by "you" on someone (so "whom" is used).

Hope this helped.
Best Wishes.

hubahuba · Answer

I agree, according to the link you provided, the answer should be A. Please, can someone confirm OA. 
Thanks

mohammadalsheikh · Answer

Dear pqhai ,

thank you for nice explanation, but I need a help in the following issue :

I can distinguish when to use "who" or " whom" using many ways that you mentioned one of them above, but I have a problem in produce the sentence , for example :

I am going to see the doctor. The doctor delivered me when I was born.
I am going to see the doctor who delivered me when I was born. __R__

Jessica met a new friend. Jessica liked her friend very much.
Jessica met a new friend whom she liked very much.

in the first example : I applied what I learned from the grammar book, but as we use whom because the noun phrase is present as objective.

in the second example I do care for Jessica not for her friend.

so please to help me understand the concept.

thank you

hubahuba · Answer

in first example, the answer to the question, "who delivered you?" is " he ". "He" delivered me. So we use "who". Another way to think of it is,  subject (doctor) is the doer of the sentence . the doctor delivered me.

in second example, the answer to the question, "who did Jessica like?", is " him ". Jessica met "him". Another way to think of it is, the subject (friend) of the sentence is used as an object of a verb (liked). this person is  the receiver.  of the sentence. You don't care about Jessica, but you are mainly concerned about the friend she met, whom she liked very much.

tanzzt · Answer

Hello  pqhai  
in my first attemp, I chose A, but after I saw the answer I think choice B is the correct answer by considering this question :  who had contributed most .
I think the "it" is not the subject for the clause.
For example: 
I went fishing with whoever had a ship.
I went fishing with whoever I thought had a ship.

Takdir · Answer

i am confused about B being the right answer.

sayantanc2k · Answer

Since an object pronoun is required after the preposition "to" (object of preposition), "whomever" is definitely better than "whoever". Corrected the OA.

stne · Answer

Whomever had contributed most to the advancement of the community.
 Whoever had contributed most to the advancement of the community.
 
Which is better?

Definitely the second one.

Now put it in the whole sentence.
The committee was instructed to award the money  to whomever it thought  had contributed most to the advancement of the community.
The committee was instructed to award the money  to whoever it thought  had contributed most to the advancement of the community.

I feel the OA was correct and answer should be B.
In the second clause whoever is actually the subject and not the object. Hence " whoever ".

sarathgopinath · Answer

Hi  sayantanc2k 
I'm not able to figure out what's wrong with option C. 
Could you please walk me through C?

yogeshmisthi · Answer

Listen ..whoever is used for when sentence require subject pronoun and whomever is used when sentence required object pronoun

Sent from my Redmi 4A using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

sayantanc2k · Answer

Here "whom" is NOT the object of "it thought", but the subject of "had contributed". Thus the correct form is "who", not "whom". Compare with the following:

The Earth, scientists think, was formed from the Sun... here "The Earth" is the subject for "was formed" and not the object for "scientists think".

ayushgmatclub1 · Answer

But according to your reasoning, shouldn't the answer be B? Because it is followed b a verb not another subject.

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The committee was instructed to award the money

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The committee was instructed to award the money

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