<p>On most of the simple questions I could distinguish between when to use who or whom (sounding it out in my ear), but on the harder ones I just don’t know. So I thought I should just memorize a rule for it. Anyone know an easy rule that works everytime? Some of the questions I had trouble with were:</p>
<li><p>The novelists who readers choose as their favorites are not always the most skilled writers.</p></li>
<li><p>The man who Mexican authorities believe to be the country’s number 1 drug trafficker has been arrested in a Pacific resort area.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>^ Who functions as the subject of the clause while whom functions as a object (be it direct object, indirect, or obj of the prep).</p>
<p>Example:
1. He is the man who organized the show.
"Who organized the show" is the clause modifying man. Who is the subject of that clause.
2. With whom shall I speak?
Reverse it. I shall speak with whom? Whom is clearly the obj of the prep.</p>
<p>Now that probably didn't help much, but this stuff takes practice. In sentence 2, a good point to bring up is to never end a sentence with a prep. You wouldn't say "Whom shall I speak with?"</p>
<p>I believe for both of your examples, the answer is "whom", since it's not the subject (think of it this way: the subject does the verb. The readers choose, the authorities believe...).</p>
<p>^ The sentences I posted above are both wrong and use the alternative. But one thing I don't get is that people say you could replace with he/she for who and him/her for whom. How does that work? Because this doesn't make any sense at all: The novelists him/her readers choose as their favorites are not always the most skilled writers.</p>