Question

can someone help me understand when to use who/whom? whoever/whomever. examples sentences such as : From ? did you borrow that costume?

Answer 1

To whom did you give the gift. (Indirect object ?)
Who received the award. ? To whom was the prize awarded ?

Answer 2

i was told also that whom is used when the sentence is past tense, and who is used for sentences that are present and future. Is this true

Answer 3

@kellerka
Well ...
that's quite hard to answer, without knowing who told you (who told you = who with the past tense here doesn't it ?).
Reason it's hard to answer is that I don't specially like contradicting people, especially if they happen to be one of your teachers.
So one thing that you could do, would be to ask the person who told you, and/or show them some of these posts and see what they say.
As for this writer (me) I think that it's as I said.

"whom is used when the sentence is past tense"
Going a little further here, I'm not convinced that "whom" (an interrogative pronoun ?) has any relation to the tense (the TIME - verbs don't get stressed, it's just that for some reason the words tense and time seem to have got tangles up in language development, I think) of the verb.
I think that it does have a relation to the CONJUGATION of the verb - I am, you are, he/she/it is etc.I, you, he, she all being subject pronouns 'cos they stand in place or represent the subject of the verb, and by implication the phrase, clause or sentence that presumably follows.

I very much hope that I haven't confused you with all these words.