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I or me? who or whom?
In spoken English, you know it when you run into a problem with pronoun case.
“Let’s just keep this matter between you and . . . ummmm . . . me.”
“To who . . . I mean, uh . . . whom does this letter go?”
“Hector is more of a people person than her . . . than she is.”
Like nouns, pronouns can act as subjects, objects, or possessives in sentences, so their forms vary to show which case they express.
| Subjective Pronouns | Objective Pronouns | Possessive Pronouns |
| I | me | my, mine |
| you | you | your, yours |
| he, she, it | him, her, it | his, her, hers, its |
| we | us | our, ours |
| they | them | their, theirs |
| who | whom | whose |
Unfortunately, determining case isn’t always easy. Here are some strategies for dealing with these common situations.
Use the subjective case for pronouns that are subjects.When a pronoun is the lone subject in a clause, it rarely causes a problem. But double the subject and suddenly there’s trouble.
Sara and me . . . , or is it Sara and I? . . . wrote the report.
To make the right choice, try answering the question for each subject separately, one at a time. You will then probably recognize that Sara wrote the report, and so did the subjective form of the pronoun, I: I wrote the report. (Me, the objective pronoun, sure didn’t.) So the revision is simple:
Sara and I wrote the report.
Use the objective case for pronouns that are objects.Again, choosingone objective pronoun is generally easy, but with two objects, the choice becomes less clear. How do you decide what to do in the following sentence?
The corporate attorney will represent both Geoff and I . . . Geoff and me?
Again, deal with one object at a time.
The corporate attorney will represent Geoff.
The corporate attorney will represent me.
The sentence needs the objective form of the pronoun:
The corporate attorney will represent Geoff and me.
Or, to be more concise:
The corporate attorney will represent us.
Note that us is also an objective form of the pronoun. The subjective form we would not work here at all.
Use whom when appropriate.One pronoun choice brings many writers to their knees: who or whom. The rule, however, is the same as for other pronouns: Use the subjective case (who) for subjects and the objective case (whom) for objects. In some cases, the choice is obvious.
| DRAFT | Whom wrote the report? |
| CORRECTED | Who wrote the report? |
| DRAFT | By who was the report written? |
| CORRECTED | By whom was the report written? |
But this choice becomes tricky when you’re dealing with subordinate clauses.
| DRAFT | shelter needs help from whomever can volunteer three hours per week. |
The previous example may sound right because whomever immediately follows the preposition from. But, because the pronoun is the subject of a subordinate clause, it needs to be in the subjective case.
| CORRECTED | The shelter needs help from whoever can volunteer three hours per week. |
When in doubt, prefer who to whom. Even when you err, you won’t sound ridiculous.
Finish comparisons to determine the right case.Many times when writers make comparisons, they leave out some understood information.
I’ve always thought John was more talented than Paul.
(I’ve always thought John was more talented than Paul was.)
But leaving this information out can lead to confusion when it comes to choosing the correct pronoun case. Try the sentence, adding him.
| DRAFT | I’ve always thought John was more talented than him. |
| I’ve always thought John was more talented than him was. | |
| CORRECTED | I’ve always thought John was more talented than he. |
If it sounds strange to use the correct pronoun, just complete the sentence.
| CORRECTED | I’ve always thought John was more talented than he was. |
Don’t be misled by an appositive. An appositive is a word or phrase that amplifies or renames a noun or pronoun. In the example below, Americans is the appositive. First, try reading the sentence without it.
| DRAFT | US Americans must defend our civil rights. |
| APPOSITIVE CUT | Us must defend our civil rights. [Us can’t be a subject.] |
| CORRECTED | We Americans must defend our civil rights. |
Note that when the pronoun is contained within the appositive, as in the examples that follow, the pronoun uses the case of the word or words it stands in for. This rule makes more sense when seen in an example.
| SUBJECTIVE | The runners leading the marathon, Matt, Luci, and I, all had trained at Central High School. |
| OBJECTIVE | The race was won by the runners from Central High, Matt, Luci, and me. |
In the first example, runners is the subject of the sentence. Since Matt, Luci, and I merely rename that subject, they share its subjective case. In the second example, the runners have become the object of a preposition: by the runners. So the threesome now moves into the objective case as well: Matt, Luci, and me.