No Harm Spilt

Choose the correct word:

1. The concoction was prepared by Dr. Jekyll and (me/I/myself).
2. Why anybody would want to be (he/him) is beyond me.
3. If you could be someone else, (who/whom) would you like to be?
4. The President’s wife is more intelligent than (he/him), but who isn’t?
5. Was it (we/us) they were talking about?
6. Let (I/me) go down to the station.
7. Everybody but Gerald and (he/him) laughed when I sang.
8. Tell us something about (you/yourself).
9. She readily gives advice to (whomever/whoever) asks for it.
10. (Who/Whom) did you say I have to call?

Answers: 1. me 2. he 3. who 4. he. 5. us/we 6. me 7. him 8. yourself 9. whoever 10. Whom

1. No one would ever say, “The concoction was prepared by I.” For some reason even some educated speakers often use the reflexive myself instead of me in such sentences. I wish they would stop. Myself is a reflexive pronoun and should be used only when it refers back to the subject or for emphasis: “I hurt myself.” “I myself slew the dragon.”
2. “Why anybody would want to be he is beyond me” rhymes and sounds funny, but it’s correct. According to the rules of formal English, the object case of the pronoun (me, him, her, us, them, whom) cannot follow any form of the verb to be. Colloquial usage prefers him.
3. When deciding between “who” or whom, use “who” where you would use “he” or “she” and “whom” where you would use “him” or “her.”  “Who would you like to be?” = “You would like to be who?”
4. The President’s wife is more intelligent than he [is]… A minority of grammarians consider “than” a preposition (like to, for, with, etc.) and in such constructions treat “than him” as acceptable. You will raise fewer eyebrows among the rule-conscious if you stick to “…than he…” If the construction sounds too stilted, you can always throw in the extra verb: “…than he is.”
5. In this case even traditionalists are in disagreement. The traditional rule requires we after “was it,” but us as the object of the preposition about. It’s probably best to recast the sentence: “Were they talking about us?”
6. All pronouns following the word “let” have to be in the object case.
7. In this sentence “but” is a preposition meaning “except” and requires the object case.
8. The reflexive pronoun “yourself” refers back to “you” as the understood subject of tell.
9. In clauses beginning with whoever/whomever, the correct form depends on how whoever/whomever functions in the clause. Here “whoever” is the subject of the clause: whoever asks for it. In the sentence “She gives advice to whomever you select,” “whomever” is the object of the verb select.