Is this sentence grammatically correct? I was just playing a video game(Grand Theft Auto) and I said to myself "Why does the driver always have to be me?" and it sounded kind of weird to me. Can I say this kind of sentences?(Some similar sentences: "Why is the winner always you?", "The idiot is him here", "The winner has to be me in the next tournament" etc.) Or do I have to say "Why do I always have to be the driver?", "Why are you always the winner?", "He is the idiot here" and "I have to be the winner in the next tournament" instead by stressing the pronouns?
1 Answer
As you suggest, "Why do I always have to be the driver?" or even better "Why do I always have to drive?" sound a bit more natural to me, I think putting the person up front is more common, although the others aren't strictly non-grammatical.
With regard to your other examples, "He is the idiot here" is fine on its own, but in context of a conversation, it can be effective to mirror the sentence structure of whoever you are replying to. So if someone tells you, "The idiot here is you", then don't change the order, just reply "No, the idiot here is Bob".