"When you are able to recognize how he has been hurt, let him know that you are sorry." (Men are from Mars, women are from Venus by John Gray)
Is it possible to write instead "let he know that you are sorry"?
The title of this thread should read "object pronoun vs. subject pronoun"
Last edited by Abstract Idea; 23-Dec-2009 at 18:21. Reason: The title of this thread should read "object pronoun vs. subject pronoun"
What made me think maybe we could use "he" is that we have a clause "he know(s) that you are sorry" in which "he" plays a subject role.
But I recognize we say
"Let's do this and that" which uses the object pronoun "us" - "Let us do this and that."
I guess we can say things like:
Please, let him teach us that subject.
Let them do it.
OK, I see we must use the object pronoun in these cases, but I cannot explain it grammatically.
What about when you say for example:
- "Let x be a real number."
- "Let n be an integer greater than one."
- "Let John be the elder brother."
I think here one is using the subjunctive, no? How coould these sentences be rephrased, with the object or subject pronoun?
- "Let it be a real number" (here "it" is an object or a subject pronoun?)
- "Let it be an integer greater than one." (here "it" is an object or a subject pronoun?)
- "Let he/him be the elder brother." ("he" or "him"?)
What is the grammatical explanation?
"I am the king of the forest."
In this sentence "I" is cleary the subject, so we use the subject pronoun.
If I merely add the verb "let" in the beginning, everything changes:
"Let me be the king of the forest."
What is the subject now? Why do we use now the object pronoun "me" instead of the subject one "I"? Is this an imperative sentence? Or subjunctive ?
However, isn't 'me' here the direct object of 'let'? 'be the king of the forest' is the indirect object? The subject of 'let' isn't given because it's a command.
As far as I'm aware, 'let' takes the form 'Let + person + infinitive'.
Try "...let him to know..."
It is an interesting dilemma. A native speaker, however, would NEVER say, "...let he know..."