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I'm reading "The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation", and there are some tests in the first chapter. There is this sentence, which needs to be corrected: That was Yusuf and me whom you saw.

The correct answers is: That was Yusuf and I whom you saw.

But why? I can't understand the reason.

I also have two other related questions: I was listening to a song and the lyrics were "no one hurts this pretty girl but her" Is her correct? Shouldn't it be a subject pronoun?

Another song related question. The title of a song is "The Devil in I". Is it correct or should it be "The Devil in Me"?

*both songs are by Slipknot, for anyone who is interested.

Thanks.

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2 Answers 2

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That was Yusuf and I / me [whom you saw].

Contrary to common belief, there is no rule of English that requires a nominative pronoun form like "I", "we", "they" etc., where the pronoun is complement of the verb "be". In the simpler That was Yusuf and me / I, nominative "I" would be ridiculously formal, and just about everyone would say "Yusuf and me".

Adding the relative clause "whom you saw" makes no difference: the usual pronoun would still be accusative "me", not "I". Additionally, "whom" is object of the verb "saw" in the relative clause, so one would expect an accusative pronoun here.

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There are two ways to say this:

  • Who you saw was Yusuf and I. (Yusuf and I was who you saw.) Nominative because Yusuf and I are not direct objects. They are a proper noun and a first person pronoun used as predicate nominatives.

  • Whom you saw was Yusuf and me. To see someone, direct object. The basic form is: You saw Yusuf and me.

So, "That was Yusuf and I whom you saw" is a mistake.

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