Question

Which of the following statements is not true?

A. "Who" and "whom" are personal pronouns.
B. "Who" is a subject pronoun.
C. "Whom" can serve as the object of a preposition.
D. "Whom" is an object pronoun.

Answer 1

From my experience, I think it is a.

Answer 2

This is a super tricky question.

First ,of all, C and D are out right away, because "whom" can totally be an object pronoun or an object of a preposition.

But technically "who" and "whom" are RELATIVE pronouns, not subject pronouns or personal pronouns. So at first glance it looks like both A and B could be good answers.

But there's a catch! "Who" and "Whom" can ALSO be interrogative pronouns—which are pronouns we use to ask questions, like "Who is that over there?" or "Whom did you talk to?" (which is technically correct, but super old-fashioned).

Now, when it comes to interrogative pronouns, "who" technically functions as a subject pronoun while "whom" functions an object pronoun.

Meaning it IS true that "who" is SOMETIMES a subject pronoun, when it's used as an interrogative pronoun in a question.

That means that you can eliminate B, C, and D, which makes A your best answer.