http://www.englishforums.com/search/pro.htm?q=tag%3aNominative+tag%3aContractions+tag%3aWhomSearch results for 'tag:Nominative tag:Contractions tag:Whom' matching tags 'Nominative', 'Contractions', and 'Whom'en-USCSMOD (Build: 3273.32735)http://www.englishforums.com/English/PronounCasePleaseHelp/2/hrxcv/Post.htm#588731Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:47:37 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:588731eddie88Very informative and clear once again thanks I never realised there were rules around the contraction isn t It is great to now know One final question I hope I am not over using your knowledge haha is in regards to this sentence Unfortunately it is to do with the whom who case again We have people whom who can testify this fact if necessary Thanks to you I am aware of four rules to decide whether it is the objective or nominative pronoun 1 If it is the object of a preposition there is no preposition in this sentence so I ignore this rule2 If it follows the be verb there is no be verb before the pronoun so I ignore this rule3 If it is the subject or object of the clause it is in it is generally a relative clause correct This is where I have trouble I find it hard to establish what clause it is apart of Is it always a part of the relative clause This is what I thought In this sentence the independent clause is we have people and the dependent relative clause is who whom can testify this fact what would if necessary be So because the pronoun is the subject of the relative clause it is who and testify would be the object of the clause correct However my other thought was that we have people is not an independent clause as it doesn t have a complete thought correct In this case we have people whom who can testify this is the independent clause Please help http://www.englishforums.com/English/ConfusePersonalPronouns/kzkg/post.htm#50751Sun, 17 Oct 2004 02:55:23 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:50751mister micawberHi Happy This area is a very contentious one so it is not surprising that you find different pronouncements within and between grammar books Here is my opinion on the examples you present 1 Who did it Not I The pronoun stands in parallel to the subject who and is a shortened form of I didn t do it As such it is formally correct but Not me is common and acceptable in spoken English 2 It is I telling you to go out It is them I spoke to In the first of these two sentences I again stands in subject apposition to who who is telling while in the second sentence them stands in object apposition to whom whom I spoke to I spoke to them In informal English however It s me telling you to go out is common and acceptable 3 Let you and me go out Let her and him do the work Both of these sentences are imperative with the understood subject you so that ungrammatically extended they would read You let you and me go out You let her and him do the work Now it is obvious that you me her and him are objects of the main verb Having said that as you will see from the additional references I quote below you and I has become so common a collocation that it is becoming acceptable in any position Let s you and I have a picnic in spite of the fact that let s is the contraction for let us which is clearly and rigidly petrified in the objective case 4 If I were a millionaire I would buy you a car If he were a millionaire he would buy a car Both are conditional and formally take the subjunctive form were in all persons that is simply the nature of English one of the uses of the subjunctive mood is to express hypothetical situations Again however if I was is becoming increasingly acceptable in spoken English Another sign of the slow death of the distinct subjunctive forms in the language Some additional references 1 From the Columbia Guide to Standard American English Most speakers of English tend to put nominative case pronouns at the left hand side of the clause in subjective territory before the verb and objective case pronouns at the right hand side of the clause in objective territory after it Apparently the pressure of this habit is so great that it overwhelms the Standard Formal pattern for the special class of verbs called linking or copulative verbs wherein It is she is required at least by rule rather than It s her or where This is he is needed not This is him The primary use of the objective case pronoun after linking verbs is in the first person It s us It s me With third person singular and plural many Standard speakers will retain the nominative even at lower levels of speech and in Informal uses And of course with second person you the nominative and objective are indistinguishable But It s me and It s us are both Standard in all Conversational and most Informal uses perhaps in part because they occur almost exclusively in speech anyway Consider the way you answer the phone if the caller asks for you To a stranger you ll respond if you re a Standard speaker This is she he not This is me or you ll dodge the issue entirely and say Speaking If you know the caller well though It s me will serve In Oratorical speech and Formal writing however Standard English demands the nominative It is we who must shoulder the burden It is us just won t do in that sort of context 2 Observations from Greenbaum Quirk A Student s Grammar of the English Language Case in personal pronouns involves a distinction absent from nouns marking broadly the grammatical roles of subject and object The choice of subjective and objective forms does not depend solely upon the strict grammatical distinction between subject and object Rather usage shows that we are concerned more with subject territory the pre verbal part of a clause in contrast to object territory the post verbal part of the clause In consequence of the latter consideration it is usual in informal style to find objective forms selected in such instances as the following His sister is taller than him It wasn t me Many people are uncomfortable about such forms however especially in writing though the subject variants are almost equally objectionable in seeming unnatural Where an operator can be added of course the problem of choice satisfactorily disappears His sister is taller than he is Note In contrast with except which is always treated as a preposition and therefore followed by the objective case Nobody except her objected there is vacillation over prepositional but many people preferring the subjective form if it is in subject territory Thus Nobody but she objected Even in object territory but can be followed by either form as with as and than Nobody objected but she her The frequency of the coordination you and I seems to have resulted in a tendency to make it case invariant though such examples as the following are felt to be uneasily hypercorrect Let s you and I go together then