Pronoun Case

Back in the early middle ages, English had many case forms. However, modern English retains only three: nominative, objective, and possessive. Even the few that remain give some people fits.

I. Is that Pronoun Nominative or Objective?

Many of us wonder what case is appropriate for a pronoun (i.e. Is it who or whom?)

A. One of the common situations that raises this question is our composing relative clauses:

You are the candidate (who, whom) I think is most likely to win.

The rule is that the pronoun should take the case appropriate to its job within the relative clause. That is, if it's the subject of the clause, it should be who. If it's the direct object of the relative clause's verb, it should be whom. If you have trouble deciding, try following these steps:

1. Extract the relative clause from the sentence: (who, whom) I think is most likely to win.
2. Change the clause to its regular order: I think (who, whom) is most likely to win.
3. Substitute he or she for who and him or her for whom: I think he is more likely to win. -- and -- I think him is more likely to win.

The pronoun's correct case - who (nominative) - should be obvious by step three. Chances are, however, that the answer will become clear after steps one or two.

B. Another troublesome situation is pronouns in than or as clauses. Because such clauses often leave unwritten parts of the clauses, it is easy to be confused about the job the pronoun is doing:

"Bill is taller than I" is really "Bill is taller than I am."

In some situations the case of the pronoun is determined by the meaning the writer wishes to convey:

"Fred likes Ethel more than (I, me)" could mean either "Fred likes Ethel more than I do" or "Fred likes Ethel more than Ethel likes me."

As the above illustrates, completing the construction determines whish pronoun is appropriate.

II. Pronouns with Verbals

Verbals are verbs that we change into other parts of speech. Two common verbals are infinitives and gerunds. Both these verbals can have subjects:

George wanted him to be his best man.
[him is the subject of the infinitive to be.]

Mel's lounging around the office lost him his job.
[Mel's is the subject of the gerund lounging.]

Infinitives' subjects take the objective case; gerunds'subject take the possessive.

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