Sentence Correction

No one but him could have told them that the theif was I.

a. him could have told them that the theif was I.
b. he could have told them that the theif was I.
c. he could have told them that the theif was me.
d. him could have told them that the theif was me.
e. he could have told them the theif was me.

The OA is A. Can someone explain why?

Yeah, this is a big area of confusion for me too. Using "I" vs "me", "him" vs "he".

Calista.

So figuring out this one is a matter of correctly choosing the case of the two pronouns. The first is a choice between he and him. He is the nominative case and him in the objective. In this case, the answer is him because in this sentence him is the direct object of the verb phrase "could have told them".

The second is a choice between I and me. I is the nominative case, and me the objective. In this case I is the subject of the phrase and nominative. It helps to rearrange the order of the sentence: I was the theif, instead of the thief was I.

Hence the answer is A.