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I believe many of us say something like this when we want to confirm or ask regarding whether the truth or fact is true only for us or true for all people:

Is it just me who ___(hate) 'Twilight' franchise?

Or

Am I the only one who __(hate) 'Twilight' franchise?

I have tried to translate my language into English using Google Translate and the translation put s after hate. Does that mean the pronoun I is equivalent with it? Or is it just error translation and the correct usage is hate instead of hates? What is the grammar rule behind it?

2 Answers 2

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The subject in both cases is third person singular, so "hates" is correct.

It is a little difficult to parse, so lets start by removing the adverb "just" and other words that are not relevant to the grammar in question and converting to a statement gives.

It is me who hates 'Twilight'.

Now the subject of the verb "hate" in the relative clause, is the pronoun "who". This is always treated as a third person pronoun, even when it's antecedent (me) is a first person pronoun.

Consider how we have in the main clause "It is me". The antecedent of "It" is also "me", but "it" is still a third person pronoun, and takes the verb "is". ("It am me" would be ungrammatical) For similar reasons, we have "who hates" and not "who hate".

You can have "who hate" only when the antecedent of "who" is plural. Relative pronouns can be singular or plural, but they are always third person. For example, you can never have "who am" or "that am".

It is I who is happy.

(and not "It is I who am happy")

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To my native English speaking ear, hates is the only possibility.

As to why: I would argue that in neither case is I the antecedent of who: in the first case the antecedent is just me, in the second case it is the only one.

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