In the manner of who and whom, use whoever when a sentence requires a subject pronoun (equivalent to he or she). In formal English, use whomever when a sentence requires an object pronoun (equivalent to him or her). Contemporary usage, however, increasingly favors the use of whoever in both cases.
Examples
- "Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible." (George Orwell)
- She wanted to be fair to whomever or whatever she was writing about.
Usage Notes:
- "If you're unsure of the correct word, choose whoever; even when the objective whomever would be strictly correct, the whoever is at worst a casualism (in other words, not bad except in formal concepts).
"Like who and whom, this pair is subject to more than occasional hypercorrection."
(Bryan A. Garner, Garner's Modern American Usage, Oxford University Press, 2009) - "Whoever baits a slightly different trap:
If the front door swings open for Mr. Wilson it opens too for whomever else can hang on to those charismatic coat-tails.
The writer has been misled by the preposition for, which is normally followed by the objective case ('It opens for them'). But here for introduces a clause, and the subject of that clause should be whoever, not whomever. There is no doubt that whomever else is wrong here. It is equivalent to anyone else who, and whoever is necessary."
(Sir Ernest Gowers, revised by Sidney Greenbaum and Janet Whitcut, The Complete Plain Words, David R. Godine, 2002) - Ryan: What I really want, honestly Michael, is for you to know it, so that you can communicate it to the people here, to your clients, to whomever.
Michael Scott: [chuckles] Okay.
Ryan: What?
Michael: It's "whoever," not "whomever."
Ryan: No, it's "whomever."
Michael: No, "whomever" is never actually right.
Jim: Sometimes it's right.
Creed: Michael is right. It's a made-up word used to trick students.
Andy: No. Actually, "whomever" is the formal version of the word.
Oscar: Obviously it's a real word, but I don't know when to use it correctly.
Michael: [to camera] Not a native speaker. . . .
Pam: It's "whom" when it's the object of the sentence and "who" when it's the subject.
Phyllis: That sounds right.
Michael: Well, it sounds right, but is it?
Stanley: How did Ryan use it, as an object?
Ryan: As an object.
Kelly: Ryan used me as an object.
Stanley: Is he right about that . . .?
Pam: How did he use it again?
Toby: It was . . . Ryan wanted Michael, the subject, to explain the computer system, the object . . .
Michael: Thank you!
Toby: . . . to whomever, meaning us, the indirect object--which is the correct usage of the word.
Michael: No one asked you anything ever, so whomever's name is Toby, why don't you take a letter opener and stick it into your skull.
("Money," The Office, 2007)
Practice:
(a) Delegates can vote for _____ they want.
(b) _____ gossips to you will also gossip about you.
