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Subjective case

When a pronoun functions as a subject or a subject complement, it must be in the subjective case (I, we, you, he, she, it, they).

Heading: Subject. Example sentence: Sylvia and he shared the award.

Heading: Subject complement. Example sentence: Greg announced that the winners were Sylvia and he.

Subject complements frequently cause problems for writers, since we rarely hear the correct form in casual speech.

Example sentence with editing. Original sentence: During the Lindbergh trial, Bruno Hauptmann repeatedly denied that the kidnapper was him. Revised sentence: During the Lindbergh trial, Bruno Hauptmann repeatedly denied that the kidnapper was he.

He is the subject complement following the helping verb was.

If kidnapper was he seems too stilted, you can rewrite the sentence:

Example sentence: During the Lindbergh trial, Bruno Hauptmann repeatedly denied that he was the kidnapper.

Exercises:

Pronoun case (such as I vs. me) 1

Pronoun case (such as I vs. me) 2

Pronoun case (such as I vs. me) 3

Pronoun case: review 1

Pronoun case: review 2