In Nominative^x, Grammar^x, Subjunctives^x

I have always heard in conversation - that must be him / her on the phone. Of course we say:He is on the phone now. Grammatically, "that must be him" it is not strictly correct, since the case of a pronoun after "be" is nominative. However, in this case (must be ***), we...

I understand. It's common to say "That was her!" or "That was not her!" even though by the laws of grammar it should be the nominative "That was she." Often our ears protest hearing "It was she," thinking it sounds absurdly pendantic, stuffy, or old fashioned. But once you have the rest of the...

CalifJim wrote: If a student points to some construction and asks me if it's the subjunctive or not, I can't reply, 'No, it's a monkey!' Now there you are wrong! You are the teacher and can say any dang thing you want! In fact a smart retort like that might go a long way toward making your...

Hello Everyone Thank you for the comments. The phrase <rather than someone do it> is new also to me. I found this in the grammar textbook 'A Comunicative Grammar of English' published from Longman and authored by Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartvik. Svartvik, though he is a Swede, is one of...

??I want that you clean up your room this instant! It would not surprise me to learn that it was possible in some NAmE Englishes. Some Romance language speaking immigrants may speak it. Quote from Everything2 : The Subjunctive Mood of English After verbs which formerly...

There is ... no basis at all for including dative among the inflectional categories of the English noun. And there is likewise no basis for including nominative or accusative (or objective) among the inflectional categories of the English noun. English nouns have no inflections whatever...

Hi 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...