Such a man as

Question

I have never seen such a man as __.  (A) he ;  (B) him  Which choice is correct, A or B?  Thank you very much for your reply.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

"he" - "such a man as he is" is implied.

I'm not sure that "him" would be a very serious error, however; people say such things all the time. On a test of formal written English I would choose A.

CJ

Roro · Answer

Hello, CalifJim. The first thing I though was " the answer should be because in this case the object of the verb is required. ...no?
And the sentence , too, seems grammatical for me.
Help me, please.

Roro · Answer

(... again this tough verb ... actually I haven't understood yet the second part of Vendler's paper .)

I'm sorry if I simply confused something.

CalifJim · Answer

Roro,

"as" is typically a conjunction. Therefore it introduces a new clause with its own subject. "he" would have to be the subject of this new clause. Note, however, "I have never seen a man like him", where "like" is a preposition, which requires the objective case form "him".

Sometimes "as" and "than" are taken to be prepositions:

She is as smart as him. She is smarter than him.

Still, the 'more correct' versions are "as smart as he (is smart)" and "smarter than he (is smart)".

Jim

Roro · Answer

Hello CalifJim. I SEE..! I didn't know that. "as" introduces a new clause and verb BE can be omitted !

Thank you !

Komountain · Answer

Hello CJ.

Please allow me to offer my view on this. I am not saying you are wrong, nor am I in such a position. But the original question is asking whether to use 'he' or 'him'. If I were the exam taker, my choice would be 'him' because the verb 'see' is a transitive that requires an object. Functionwise, 'man' and the underlined part(___) must be the same--the object of 'see', thus 'him.' If the verb were 'be' in place of 'see,' the answer is definitely 'he,' (though 'him' is acceptable in colloquial English.) As you hinted, if there were 'is' after the underlined part, the answer is doubtlessly 'he.' As the original question stands (i.e. there is no 'is' after the underlined part), 'him' would be the choice intended by the question giver.

To sum it up, the verb 'see' is the clincher determining the ultimate choice. In the expression 'between you and I/me,' 'between' tells you which to choose between 'I' and 'me.' Likewise, 'see' is influential in choosing either 'he' or 'him.'

Be it right or wrong, this is MY analysis.

Paco2004 · Answer

0 As to this problem, OED says merely that both "he" and "him" are possible and gives no judgement about which one is more grammatical. 02br
01b00such a ~ as ~ 02b02br
00The principle clause may be reduced to such and the words qualified by it for the purpose of producing a terse (exclamatory) form. The clause introduced by as may be reduced to the subject only; 01i00when this is a pronoun, it may be either nominative or accusative02i00, e.g. "such as me" or "such as I". 02br
02br
00My E-J dictionary (Genius E-J) gives an example sentence like "I wouldn't give it to a man as he [him]". It also gives no judgement about which one is better, though it puts 'he' in a position prior to 'him'. 02br
02br
00paco 0-

CalifJim · Answer

0 komountain, 02br
02br
00Your analysis is welcome. 02br
01blockquote

00If I were the exam taker, my choice would be 'him' because the verb 'see' is a transitive that requires an object.12blockquote

12br
02br
00Now 01b00I may be wrong02b00, but I think the exam giver is going to consider this choice incorrect! 02br
02br
00Here's my analysis: The question is unfair to begin with, since it is borderline to many native speakers as to whether "he" or "him" should be used. If such an apparently "unfair" question is asked on an exam, it is probably the concoction of a very prescriptive grammarian. The more prescriptive rule would have "he" as the answer, citing the 'rule' that "as" is a conjunction, not a preposition. So the exam giver probably considers "he" the correct answer! 02br
02br
05002br
02br
00Another point worth considering is whether case is more commonly assigned by deeper functional considerations ("him" is the object of "see") of by more superficial considerations ("he" is the subject of a clause introduced by the conjunction "as"). If the deeper considerations were more likely, then we would have no distinctions of "he" and "him" between "It's important for him to go" and "It's important that he go". Both show "he" as subject of a subordinate clause, so both should be "he" if the subjecthood of "he" is more important than the presence of the preposition "for". "It's important for he to go" would be the correct form in that kind of grammar, wouldn't it? 02br
02br
00CJ 010id1

Such a man as

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions