Who and whom what to know for the SAT and ACT

The SAT and ACT do test a version of the who vs. whom rule, but only at a relatively superficial level.  There are only two things you need to know: 1) Whom  should  not  come before a verb 2) Whom  should come after a preposition For example: Many people are familiar with the story of how the Pilgrim settlers met a Pawtuxet tribe member named Squanto whom befriended  them, taught them how to survive in their new wilderness home, showed them how to plant crops, and acted as an interpreter   with the Wampanoag tribe and its chief, Massasoit. A. NO CHANGE B. which befriended C. who befriended D. and befriending Yes, who vs. whom is clearly being tested here, but theres a decent chance that you can hear that whom befriended sounds extremely  awkward, and that who befriended sounds a lot better. In grammatical terms, the  simplest version of the rule here is that whom should never be used right before a verb. (Befriend  is a verb because you can say  to befriend). Thats it. In order to apply the rule, you do need to be able to accurately recognize verbs, but if you can do that, youre pretty much set. Now, heres part two of what youre likely to see. Many people are familiar with the story of how the Pilgrim settlers met Squanto, a Pawtuxet tribe member from whom they learned  about planting crops and surviving in the New World. A. NO CHANGE B. from who C. by which D. from which There are two straightforward rules being tested here: 1)  Ã‚  Who and  whom = people;  which  = thing 2) Whom, not  who,  must follow a preposition Therefore: C and D can be easily eliminated  because which should only refer to things. B is incorrect because  from is a preposition, and prepositions should be followed by  whom, not  who. That leaves A, which  correctly uses  whom. Generally speaking, the SAT and ACT are a lot more interested in testing whether  people know the basics of correct English and are able to recognize  flagrant mistakes than with how well they know  complex  grammar rules. That means youre exceedingly unlikely to see a question that looks like this: Many people are familiar with the story of how the Pilgrim settlers met Squanto, a Pawtuxet tribe member who they encountered  shortly after arriving in the New World. A. NO CHANGE B. whom they encountered C. which they encountered D. they encountered him To answer this question, you need to be able to  recognize that the correct answer  is  the direct object of the verb encounter that is, you would say  encounter him (object pronoun), not encounter  he (subject pronoun). Whom is correct because it is an object pronoun, whereas who is a subject pronoun. Only an object pronoun can replace an object pronoun (him - whom). But again, the chance of your encountering a question that tests the rule at this level of subtlety is  so small that its not even really worth worrying about.