A Tricky “Who”

We grammar curmudgwons tend to like “whom” as the first word in a sentence because it’s often a direct object, even though it doesn’t feel like it. This sentence is different! First word in the second line:

Rearrange the words to put the main clause at the beginning: “You had no idea who was even running…” Yes, this “who” is the subject of the subordinate clause, so it’s correct!

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English is relatively uninflected, so where the words are in a sentence makes a big difference. One rule is to put the verb as close as you can to the subject. Here’s and example of not doing this:

What??? The murder goes to auction?

You need two sentences here:

Rare ‘Ides of March’ dagger coin goes to auction. The coin was minted by Brutus after Julius Caesar’s murder. Make sure your writing is not easily misunderstood.

Here’s a picture of the coin:

Third panel, last word.

Should that be “him” or “he”? It depends on what he means.

• “As much as him” means they love reading as much as they love him. (That’s the objective case, correct for a direct object.)
• “As much as he” would mean they love reading as much as he does. (Nominative case, subject of loves.)
• I can see wolves loving to eat him, but I don’t think that’s what the sheep would hope for.

Do you see the mistake: Panel 2:

“We/us … men” is called an appositive, meaning they are equivalent. That makes the pronoun part of the subject, so it should be “we,” not “us.”

You know that, right?

Not standard circumstance.

The problem with this error is that it’s two errors (putting yourself first and using “me” instead of “I”) and grade school teachers tend to correct both at once. Consequently, their students tend to use “I” even when they should use “me.”

So:

• Use “I” when it’s a subject
• Use “me” when it’s the object of a preposition
• Be humble—mention the other guy first.