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him could have told them that the thief was I

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him could have told them that the thief was I

by vipulgoyal » Mon Apr 20, 2015 3:18 am
No one but him could have told them that the thief was I

A. him could have told them that the thief was I
B. he could have told them that the thief was I
C. he could have told them that the thief was me
D. him could have told them that the thief was me
E. he could have told them the thief was me

OA A

Even after loads of discussions experts cant conclude OA

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/sc- ... t5294.html

https://gmatclub.com/forum/no-one-but-hi ... 0a6496bb8f

Experts any thoughts ??
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by ceilidh.erickson » Mon Apr 20, 2015 6:15 am
This is not a GMAT-like problem. What is the source? The GMAT will never use the first person ("I" or "me") in a SC question.

Before I dive into technicalities, a disclaimer: you don't need any of the following for the GMAT!

The verb "to be" takes a predicate (a subject compliment), not an object. So the correct use is "it is I" rather than "it is me." We use the subject pronoun "i," not the object pronoun "me." Therefore, in the given sentence, the only correct construction is "the thief was I."

This rule is a shibboleth of English teachers and grammar snobs, and does not reflect the way that English is actually spoken - even by a majority of well-educated English speakers. The GMAT will not test this sort of rule.

As for "he" v. "him," the "but" is a preposition and should thus take the object pronoun, much like "with him," "for him," "aside from him," etc.

So, A is the correct answer. The larger takeaway here, though, is that this is not a question that will help you in any way to prepare for the GMAT. Please let us know the source of this question, so students can avoid it!

(PLEASE ALWAYS POST YOUR SOURCES!)
Ceilidh Erickson
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Harvard Graduate School of Education
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by Aman verma » Mon Apr 20, 2015 7:29 am
vipulgoyal wrote:No one but him could have told them that the thief was I

A. him could have told them that the thief was I
B. he could have told them that the thief was I
C. he could have told them that the thief was me
D. him could have told them that the thief was me
E. he could have told them the thief was me

OA A

Hello Vipulgoyal,

First of all I am not an expert; just trying to make an humble effort as a student to help and understand in the process !

Now, the construction of the sentence is inverted or expletive.So if you rearrange the sentence in the normal order you can see the structure clearly ."that the thief was I " rearrange this portion in the normal order "I was the thief", it cannot possibly be " me was the thief " . So you can clearly see why the Nominative case is used. You can also read back the sentence in this normal order "No one but him could have told them that I was the thief". You cannot possibly use 'me' in place of 'I'. Regarding, 'him' in "No one but him" it will always be in the Accusitive case since 'no one' is in the Nominative case.
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