It is he who broke my bat.

[Rollercoaster1]

It is he who broke my bat.

I have a couple of questions regarding the use of 'he' in the sentence above. It's surely not a subjective case. I have never heard or read anyone calling it a subjective case in this sort of sentence structure. Is it an objective case, but wait, the objective case of 'he' is 'him', right? And what about the the pronoun 'who' in the sentence? It is a subjective or nominative pronoun, right? And what do we call this kind of sentence structure?

 

[Rover_KE]

It's a cleft sentence, used to emphasise the subject.

The verb to be always takes a subjective pronoun. 'Who' is a relative pronoun.

 

[SoothingDave]

"Woe is I," right?

"He's the one who broke my bat" is a natural version.

 

[jutfrank]

Why do you seem to be so sure that he is not in the subjective case? It is.

As mentioned above, who is the subject of broke.

 

[Tarheel]

Without some kind of context to justify something more complex, we would say:

He broke my bat.

 

[Tdol]

It's surely not a subjective case.

Why not? Many say that the verb be cannot take an object. It's an area where there is disagreement, but it is not settled. However, people using he would say that it is subjective.

 

[Rollercoaster1]

Why not? Many say that the verb be cannot take an object. It's an area where there is disagreement, but it is not settled. However, people using he would say that it is subjective.

It is us who pave our paths. Why not we in the sentence?

 

[abaka]

Strictly speaking "it is I/we/he" is correct in all cases, but when spoken it often sounds pretentious.

In writing it's best to avoid that construction altogether.

He was the one who broke my bat.
We pave our own paths.

Woe is me is a classic English saying that has nothing to do with the "it is" construction. It occurs several times in the Authorized Version -- a really modern text, indeed! ;-)

 

[Tdol]

It is us who pave our paths. Why not we in the sentence?

I would accept both.

 

[Tdol]

Strictly speaking "it is I/we/he" is correct in all cases, but when spoken it often sounds pretentious.

Especially in the sentence It is I as a way of identifying yourself.

 

[GoesStation]

It is us who pave our paths. Why not we in the sentence?

The sentence is so unnatural that it really isn't worth considering. Hardly any native speakers would ever produce it. I'd say We're the ones who pave the paths.

 

[Rollercoaster1]

The sentence is so unnatural that it really isn't worth considering. Hardly any native speakers would ever produce it. I'd say We're the ones who pave the paths.

Jake: I am ruined! My life is davastated! Whatever I did, failed badly. And for this ruin and devastation, I blame people.

Adam: I think it is us who pave our paths. People are not resposible for our failures. At least, that's my opinion.

I don't think saying 'we are the ones who pave the/our paths' would sound correct in the sentence above, it may. But I hope you'd agree to that unnatural sentnece of OP in the dialogue.

 

[GoesStation]

I guess it's possible. I'd say we pave our own paths.