It's them

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Cool Breeze

#250598 Sun, 30 Jul 06 10:54 PM

Maple wrote:
IMO

He is as old as we = he is as old as we are old. (thus we is the subject of "as clause", as is a conj.)

He is as old as me (as is a prep)

We cannot be the subject if I put a period/full stop after it: He is as old as we. That is a complete sentence as it is and there is no verb after we.

Cheers
CB

Cool Breeze

Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006

Helsinki, Finland

Senior Member (3,003)

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.- Mark Twain

Verbs, Clauses

CalifJim

#250657 Mon, 31 Jul 06 04:39 AM

I'm inclined to agree with Maple that the implication is that the pronoun after as old as stands for a subject of an unstated clause. Perhaps the "rule" I made up earlier should be extended to cases where the "finite clause" can be merely implied, i.e., need not be stated fully. Smile [:)]

On the other hand, a significant number of speakers tend to say as old as [us / me / him ...], thus treating as as a preposition, so maybe the "rule" can stand as it is. Smile [:)]

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,765)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Prepositions, Clauses, Nouns, Pronouns, Numbers

Inchoateknowledge

#250705 Mon, 31 Jul 06 08:01 AM

Hello Jim,

The noun after the verb is to be in nominative case and not in accusative.
"I think you mean this to be true in the case of a pronoun after a linking verb only. Taking your "rule" literally, we must have

They invited we."

You might have known I was speaking specifically about "this is I". 'To be' is an intransitive verb and so it can not be followed by an objective pronoun.
(pronoun = noun to me)

"In English, the rule is that pronouns are in the accusative whenever they are not the subject of a finite clause." = "The noun after the verb is to be in nominative case and not in accusative (in this case)."

Inchoateknowledge

Joined on Wed, May 3 2006

Senior Member (2,537)

Beep! Beep! :)

Verbs, Clauses, Nouns, Pronouns, Nominative, Accusative

Alienvoord

#250963 Mon, 31 Jul 06 09:24 PM

Pronouns are accusative after "be". "it's me," "it's them", not "it's I" and "it's they". The latter are comprehensible, but out of date.

I'd say even formal English uses "it's me". If you say "it's I" you will sound very old-fashioned.

Alienvoord

Joined on Tue, Jul 25 2006

Toronto

Full Member (317)

I'm a Canadian English speaker

Dates, Nouns, Pronouns, Accusative

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