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In the sentence

Whom is she calling?

what type of object is whom?

Is whom an indirect object because she is doing the calling to a person referred to as whom?

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    It's an object. In English, wh-pronouns are fronted, so the declarative form of this sentence (or the full answer to this) would be 'she is calling [John]'. 'Whom' refers to 'John', the object.
    – Jangari
    Commented Mar 13, 2017 at 4:16

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"Whom is she calling?" has only one object and so it is the direct object.

Normally the ditransitive verbs like give, grant, tell etc. take two objects (direct and indirect object).

The verb 'call' is not a ditransitive verb except maybe in the idiomatic expression 'call names' meaning 'verbally abuse someone' (example: He was calling me names because he disagreed with something I'd written).

Direct objects normally answer the question what? and indirect objects answer the question (to/for) whom?

Examples:

His father gave John enough money to buy a bike. ((to)whom? - John = Indirect Object; what? - money = Direct Object)

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  • Not a foolproof method. Some sentences with only one object have an indirect object instead of a direct one.
    – Khuldraeseth na'Barya
    Commented May 10, 2017 at 2:48
  • You can "call someone", or "call to someone". Call can be intransitive (most commonly in the sense of calling on the phone - "John is calling" - but also to shout or call out to someone).
    – Stuart F
    Commented Dec 4, 2023 at 11:43
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'Whom is she calling?' is incorrect. That should be 'Who is she calling ?', or 'To whom / with whom is she speaking?' Whom is the residue of a dative case for nouns/pronouns, in older, more inflected versions of the english language

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    Although “whom” originates from a dative form, it has the function in modern English of both the dative and accusative cases (like “him”, “her” and other pronouns).
    – herisson
    Commented Dec 4, 2023 at 3:41
  • In American English, a question like "Whom did you promote?" would sound quite old-fashioned nowadays, and when whom is used here, it's typically the object of a preposition. "With whom did you speak?"
    – TimR
    Commented Dec 4, 2023 at 12:16

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