{"id":1073,"date":"2020-08-25T07:00:47","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T12:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=1073"},"modified":"2021-02-18T10:28:54","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T16:28:54","slug":"i-subject-your-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/pronouns\/i-subject-your-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"I Subject, Your Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"

In past discussions of who-whom<\/em> and whoever-whomever<\/em>, we passed along a handy memory aid: who<\/em> (and whoever<\/em>) = they<\/em>; whom<\/em> (and whomever<\/em>) = them<\/em>.*<\/p>\n

That’s fine as far as it goes, but it goes nowhere unless we can tell a subject (they<\/em>) from an object (them<\/em>).<\/p>\n

One reason that distinguishing between subjects and objects is so difficult can be traced to what’s called the subject complement<\/strong>, a fancy term for the B<\/em> in A<\/em> = B<\/em>. In the sentence It is you<\/em>, the word you<\/em> is a subject complement: it<\/em> = you<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Math teaches us that if A<\/em> = B<\/em>, then B<\/em> = A<\/em>. If it<\/em> = you<\/em>, then you<\/em> = it<\/em>. In the sentence It is you<\/em>, the word you<\/em> is a kind of secondary subject.<\/p>\n

However, you<\/em> stays the same whether it’s a subject or an object. Things get trickier with the subject pronouns I, he, she, we, they, who,<\/em> and whoever<\/em>, which all change forms when they function as objects (me, him, her, us, them, whom,<\/em> and whomever<\/em>).<\/p>\n

A conversational sentence like It’s me<\/em> is technically wrong, because me<\/em> is the object form of I<\/em>, when what we need is a subject<\/em> complement. Therefore, It’s I<\/em> would be proper English (it<\/em> = I<\/em>). Remember, if It is I<\/em>, then I am it<\/em>. Since no one says, “Me am it,” It’s me<\/em> can’t be correct.<\/p>\n

Look at these everyday sentences: It’s us. Wait, it was him. No, it has been them all along. But it could’ve been her.<\/em> We hear these all the time\u2014and every one of them is technically incorrect. In such sentences, informal speech tends to prefer object pronouns like me<\/em>, her<\/em>, and them<\/em> over the formally correct I<\/em>, she<\/em>, and they<\/em>. Who knows why? They just sound better, or something. For whatever reason, not many folks we meet on the street would say, “It’s we.” “It was he.” “It has been they.” “It could’ve been she.”<\/p>\n

But no one can ever master whom<\/em> and whomever<\/em> without knowing when object pronouns in everyday speech should be changed to subject complements in formal English.<\/p>\n

More next time\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

This classic grammar tip was contributed by our late veteran copy editor and word nerd Tom Stern.<\/em><\/p>\n

* Actually, our previous handy aid was who<\/em> = he<\/em> and whom<\/em> = him<\/em>. We support using gender-neutral pronouns as we discussed in our post of January 15, 2020, 2019’s Word of the Year is Inclusive, not Divisive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz<\/h2>\n

Make the following colloquial sentences consistent with formal English.<\/p>\n

1. She’s just glad it turned out to be me.<\/p>\n

2. The way I see it, it must have been them.<\/p>\n

3. The culprits were Joe, Jack, Jake, and whomever else.<\/p>\n

4. It ended up being her who the group could count on.<\/p>\n

5. It seemed like them, but it was him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz Answers<\/h3>\n

These answers are academically correct. But if you talk to your friends like this, you’re on your own.<\/p>\n

1. She’s just glad it turned out to be I<\/em>.<\/p>\n

2. The way I see it, it must have been they<\/em>.<\/p>\n

3. The culprits were Joe, Jack, Jake, and whoever<\/em> else.<\/p>\n

4. It ended up being she whom<\/em> the group could count on. (whom<\/em> is the object of the verb count on<\/em>)<\/p>\n

5. It seemed like them, but it was he<\/em>. (them<\/em> is the object of the preposition like<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In past discussions of who-whom and whoever-whomever, we passed along a handy memory aid: who (and whoever) = they; whom (and whomever) = them.* That’s fine as far as it goes, but it goes nowhere unless we can tell a subject (they) from an object (them). One reason that distinguishing between subjects and objects is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effective-writing","category-pronouns","category-whowhomwhoeverwhomever"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5170,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions\/5170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}