My sentence is: I'm happier with a small amout of friends whom I feel like I can be myself around, than with a big group of people I don't really know that well.
Should it be "who I feel like "
I'm happier with a small amount of friends who(m) I feel like I can be myself around, than with a big group of people I don't really know that well.
Traditionally, when the relative pronoun is object of a preposition, as it is in your example (it is object of "around"), the relative pronoun should be accusative case "whom".
But that is considered very formal nowadays, and it is perfectly acceptable to use nominative case "who".
There are two other alternatives: you could omit the relative pronoun altogether, or use "that" instead of a wh pronoun:
I'm happier with a small amount of friends (that) I feel like I can be myself around, than with a big group of people I don't really know that well.
(Note: a relative pronoun (or "that") is not omissible if it is the subject of the relative clause. For example, in "He is the man who/that stole my car", "who" / "that" is subject and hence cannot be dropped: *"He is the man stole my car".)
PaulM
I always use 'whom' when it is governed by a preposition, as in your sentence.
I always use 'who/whom' when referring to people, not 'that' (just as we don't refer to a person as an 'it' unless showing utter contempt for the person.)
When the noun is countable, it is :
a small number of friends
Use 'amount' for non-count nouns:
a small amount of sugar added to a glass of champagne makes...
Mr.Matthews:
I am aware that you take a "descriptive" approach to the English language; but are you suggesting that what you call the "prescriptive" approach has no place in this forum? I am led to that inference, since I find your statement - nay, admonishment - that "It is not helpful to confuse or mislead questioners with such shibboleths" to be presumptuously imperious. One could be forgiven for even inferring from your tone of writing that you regard this forum as your domain!
I will continue to provide the 'correct' 'Queen's English' grammatical perspective, if for no other reason than to show non-native speakers how other - dare I say 'educated'; dare I say 'good' writers may express themselves.