Inverted Sentences: Pronouns and Subject-Verb Agreement
This post is inspired by a question suggested by a student (keep the requests coming!), who recently asked me about various issues with pronoun case. I’m going to address the student’s specific question but also expand on the topic a bit. The issues discussed here are advanced issues; you likely don’t need to worry about these if your goal score is 650 or lower.
The question
Here’s what the student asked:
I am not sure whether “Hi, it’s me!” or “Hi, it’s I” is correct. What about “It’s him who will answer” or “It’s he who will answer?”
First, the student is asking when to use different cases for singular first person or singular third person pronouns, so we’re dealing with pronoun case. Pronouns can come in three cases (though not all pronouns have three cases): subjective, objective, and possessive. The names of the cases refer to how the pronoun is used in the sentence.
Next, the student is questioning whether the subject is the pronoun “it,” before the verb in each sentence, or whether the subject comes after the verb (because we wouldn’t use a subjective pronoun in that position unless it was the subject of the sentence). So the student is also questioning whether we have an inverted sentence.
Pronoun Cases
Here are the cases for personal pronouns:
| Subjective | Objective | Possessive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person (singular) | I | me | my, mine |
| 2nd person (singular) | you | you | your, yours |
| 3rd person (masculine singular) |
he | him | his |
| 3rd person (feminine singular) |
she | her | her, hers |
| 3rd person (neutral singular) |
it | it | its |
| 1st person plural | we | us | our, ours |
| 2nd person plural | you | you | your, yours |
| 3rd person plural | they | them | their, theirs |
Subjective pronouns are used as subjects in sentences. Objective pronouns are used as objects. Possessive pronouns are used when we want to indicate some kind of possession. For example:
I ate the pizza. “I” is the subject, so we use a subjective pronoun. The “pizza” is the object.
The pizza was eaten by me. The “pizza” is now the subject” and “me” is the object, so we use an objective pronoun.
That pizza is mine. The “pizza” is still the subject, but this time, I’m indicating possession: the pizza belongs to me. Therefore, I use the possessive pronoun “mine.”
Inverted Sentences
So far, the examples we’ve used are pretty straightforward and, chances are, you would not be confused if asked to choose between “I ate the pizza” and “Me ate the pizza.” How do things get more complicated on the GMAT?
One way to make a more complicated sentence is to invert the subject – to place the subject after the verb rather than before. For example, the 11th edition of The Official Guide for GMAT Review (OG) included this clause in one SC problem:
“… it will be difficult to absorb them…”
In this case, the subject is actually the infinitive phrase “to absorb them” and the non-inverted sentence would read “to absorb them will be difficult.” Awkward, yes, but grammatically correct!
When we invert the subject in this way, we have to use some kind of pronoun before the verb as a “placeholder” to indicate that we’re postponing the subject. In the above sentence, the pronoun “it” functions as the placeholder, but that pronoun is not the subject of the sentence. (Note: The pronoun “it” can also function as a subject in a sentence; it just doesn’t serve that purpose in the above sentence.)
Another example, from an incorrect answer in the 10th edition of OG, says:
“there was at least a million or more others…”
In any sentence, the verb has to match with the subject, so it’s important for us to identify the subject correctly. The subject is the plural noun “others,” but the verb is the singular “was.” The sentence should read “there were at least a million or more others…” and the non-inverted sentence would read “at least a million or more others were…”
See what I did to “non-invert” both of those sentences? In the vast majority of cases, when an inverted subject is used correctly, you should be able to pick up the subject and put it in front of the verb to make an awkward-sounding but technically grammatically correct subject-verb pair. If that doesn’t work, then you most likely don’t have an inverted sentence and should look before the verb for the subject.
Which is Correct: It’s me or It’s I?
Let’s look at the student’s question again. We have two options: either the “it” pronoun is functioning as the subject, or the “it” is indicating a postponed subject and we have an inverted sentence. Let’s try them both out.
If “it” is functioning as the subject, then the pronoun after the verb should be in the objective case. Which one represents the objective case – me or I? (Me.)
If “it” is functioning as a placeholder and the subject occurs after the verb, then the pronoun after the verb should be in the subjective case and the verb will need to match with that subject. The subjective pronoun is “I,” and the verb that goes with “I” is “am” (for example, I am here). So if we want to have an inverted subject here, we’d have to say “It am I!” (Non-inverted: I am it!)
Hmm. That doesn’t work – so this isn’t an inverted subject. “It” really is functioning as the subject, so we need to use the objective case for the pronoun: It’s me.
What about the other one: It’s him who will answer or It’s he who will answer? In this case, we can say “he is who will answer.” We can consider this an inverted sentence, then, with “he” as the subject and use the form “it’s he who will answer.” (Though I will mention that this particular structure is not very common on the test. I don’t think I’ve seen an instance – on the GMAT – of an inverted structure that uses a pronoun as the subject. They tend to be more like the two OG examples I mentioned above.)
Take-Aways
- These are both advanced issues. If you’re going for an 80th percentile or higher score on verbal only, you should know how to deal with them. If you are going for a 65th percentile or lower, don’t worry too much about them. Finally, if you’re aiming for somewhere between 65th and 80th percentile, study the more advanced material only in your areas of strength.
- If you need to study inverted sentences, know what an inverted sentence is and how to test whether one has been constructed properly.
- If you need to study pronoun case, know what the three cases are and how they are used.
Copyright note: the text excerpted above from The Official Guide for GMAT Review 11th Edition is copyright GMAC (the Graduate Management Admissions Council). The short excerpts are quoted under fair-use statutes for scholarly or journalistic work; use of these excerpts does not imply endorsement of this article by GMAC.