Pretend

Hi again, Mav!
1. is correct
but the others are not.
You cannot use "pretend" with "as if", the verb already has that meaning: to pretend = to make as if.
To my knowledge, the only possible construction with "to pretend" is "to pretend to be".
Maybe someone will be more helpful than I am...

Ohhh Ok Anne, thanks

By the way I edited #3 and wrote 'he' instead of the typo 'here'
lol...

What do you think about 'It's him who pretends he were intelligent'?

I'd say "he's the one pretending to be intelligent"/"he's the one who pretends to be intelligent"

It is he. In this instance the pronoun must be in the nominative or subject case. We commonly say It's him; however, it is grammatically incorrect.

Yes in theory, but native speakers do not really say 'it is he' or 'it is she' or 'it is they' or 'it is I'. It is seen as old-fashioned or rather pretentious and is likely to raise a bit of a laugh.

Yes, 'it is he!' does have a melodramatic air.

For the original sentence, maybe:

'He's the one who's trying to look intelligent...'
'He's the one who wants to look intelligent...'
'He's the one who's always pretending to be intelligent...'
'He's the one who thinks he's the brainbox round here...'

But it would require quite a strange context: A is accus

Mr. P. - I think you have inadvertently introduced a complication, albeit an intriguing one. In the original query, someone was pretending to BE intelligent. We can understand why someone might pretend to BE intelligent. But you have someone pretending to LOOK intelligent - ("A is accused of pretending to look intelligent") I think this was just a slip of the tongue/ pen/ keyboard on your par

You're quite right, khoff! Thank you!

Robinson Crusoe could 'pretend to be intelligent' on his own; but to be able to 'pretend to look intelligent' ('to give the impression of being intelligent'), he would need a Man Friday.

I wouldn't dream of deleting your message, by the way (I especially liked the thick glasses) – please carry on posting!

MrP

It is he. In this instance the pronoun must be in the nominative or subject case. We commonly say It's him; however, it is grammatically incorrect.

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This is a falsehood, Sweazy. It is a very common falsehood but it is a falsehood nevertheless. It merely a bad rule thought up a couple of hundred years ago by some pedants who failed to analyse English proper

At least they [those hundred-year old rule makers] could spell the word ANALYZE. And, no, it's not a falsehood. It's him is the vernacular. It is he is formal, and nonstandard.