The Thin Man - a Prime Example of Proper Grammar!

I was watching one of my favorite movies yesterday, After the Thin Man, and I was so pleased to hear proper grammar.  :)

Expecting Nick and Nora, Aunt Catherine says, "That must be they now."  How many of us would have said, "That must be them now"?  Maybe it's not too foreign for some of us - those of us who were taught to answer the phone, "This is she (he)."

Oh, thank you, Aunt Catherine!

If you're interested, here's the semi-technical explanation:  the part of speech after a being verb is called a predicate nominative. 

That          must be      they

subject      verb           predicate nominative

Predicate nominatives in the form of pronouns can only use subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they).  Object pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them) are not used as predicate nominatives.  :-)

(Note how I included "you" twice?  It's a singular pronoun as well as a plural pronoun.  AND it's the same over in the object pronouns side.  Same thing with "it."  "It" is a subject pronoun as well as an object pronoun.)

Comments

[Bill Shope]

I have Aunt Catherine's comment saved to my recorder's hard drive. In the same movie, Nora knocks on a door, Nick asks, "Who is it?," and she responds, "It's I."