The Grammar Doctor

Q. I read this sentence today: "Heck, if you were him, you'd be bummed too, wouldn't you?" I think it should be "...if you were he..." Many years ago when I was in grammar school, an English teacher told us that the verb "to be" never takes an object, which would make the sentence incorrect, but I never hear that rule now.

A You're right about the rule. "If you were him" is not correct grammatically. However, the rule is followed so rarely these days that "if you were he" sounds strange. "If you were him" is acceptable in informal conversation. If you want to be grammatically correct and avoid sounding stiff, you can use a noun instead of a pronoun in that sentence: "Heck, if you were Jack, you'd be bummed too, wouldn't you?"


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