Which sentence uses who/whom correctly?

Which sentence uses who/whom correctly?

• A. Whom did you invite to the party?
• B. Who did you invite to the party?
• C. Whom did you invite to the party.
• D. Whom did you invited to the party?

Answer: (A)

The key idea here is choosing the correct case for who/whom in a question that uses did-support, and keeping the verb in its base form after did. In the embedded clause, the pronoun is the object of the verb invite, so the proper object form is used: whom. The auxiliary did requires the main verb to be in base form, so invite, not invited, follows did. So the sentence Whom did you invite to the party? uses whom as the object of invite and keeps the verb in its base form after did, which is exactly what formal grammar calls for in questions. The other options run into two kinds of issues: using who instead of whom when the pronoun is the object, or using invited after did, or punctuation that makes the sentence read as a statement rather than a question.

The key idea here is choosing the correct case for who/whom in a question that uses did-support, and keeping the verb in its base form after did. In the embedded clause, the pronoun is the object of the verb invite, so the proper object form is used: whom. The auxiliary did requires the main verb to be in base form, so invite, not invited, follows did.

So the sentence Whom did you invite to the party? uses whom as the object of invite and keeps the verb in its base form after did, which is exactly what formal grammar calls for in questions.

The other options run into two kinds of issues: using who instead of whom when the pronoun is the object, or using invited after did, or punctuation that makes the sentence read as a statement rather than a question.