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Kenta Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

I am not ( ) I used to be.

Hello.

This is a very famous sentence in Japanese dictionaries and reference books.

Of course this means "I have changed a lot."

We learned the answer is "what". But the other day, I read an article.

It said that this sentence is used in almost every book in Japan, but native speakers

usually use "who".

I believed I should say "what" in this sentence (most of the English-learners in Japan also believe so),

so I was very surprised. If you have some comments, please tell me.

Thank you.
  

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5 Answers
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Do these searches and think for yourself. These are results at the New York Times, educated native speakers, many of them checked by the editors:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Anytimes.com+%22what+I+used+to+be%22+&btn
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I think you can say either "who" or "what", depending on the context and what you want to say. Anyway, I think it's usually "what" in those kinds of sentences.

I'm not Homer Simpson anymore. I'm not who I used to be. I am Mr. Thompson now.
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A different question on the same sentence.

Shouldn't it be "whom I used to be," not "who I used to be"?
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Never mind. It should be "who," not "whom." For the explanation, see

http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxitsmev.html
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Hello. Thank you for your comments.
I came to a conclusion that "what" is correct. Some people use "who" and they may insist that "who" should be right.
I agree to it. But I will use "what" from now on.
Thank you all!
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