grammatical case - He must decide who/whom to be. Which is correct?


Which of the following two sentences is correct?



He must decide who to be.


He must decide whom to be.



I can think of arguments for both sides, but I'm not sure.


To elaborate, is who(m) the object of decide, the subject of be, or the object of be? Does the infinitive form of be have any bearing on the answer? And is there anything else to consider about the position or role of who(m) in this particular sentence that would inform the answer?


The answers to the linked question What’s the rule for using “who” and “whom” correctly? say to "substitute he and him for who and whom." However, that doesn't give a clear answer in this context, because neither of those pronouns sounds right: "He must decide to be he"? "He must decide to be him"? Normally we'd use a reflexive pronoun here ("He must decide to be himself") and it's not clear what case that corresponds to.



Answer



The Wikipedia link about the accusative case explains that



Modern English, which almost entirely lacks declension in its nouns, does not have an explicitly marked accusative case even in the pronouns. Such forms as whom, them, and her derive rather from the old Germanic dative forms, of which the -m and -r endings are characteristic.



Now, whether to use who or whom in your sentence entirely depends on which case should be used, accusative (whom) or nominative (who).


In English, it is grammatically correct to use nominative after the verb to be as in



It's he who stole my car. It's they who told me the truth. It's she who lied to me.



However, we know that "It's me" (using the accusative case after to be) is broadly used in English. But it is just a few exceptions.


In your sentence, it is appropriate to use the nominative case as it is the complement of to be. If you divide the sentence into two parts:



He must decide / He should be who => He must ask who he should be => He must decide who to be.



in the same way as:



He must decide / He should meet whom => He must decide whom he should meet => He must decide whom to meet.


He must ask / She is who => He must ask who she is. (This question cannot be shortened with wh-word + to-infinitive as the subjects are not same.)



We don't ask,



*Whom is he? or *Who is him?


*Whom am I? or *Who am me?



because whom and him/me are the accusative case and can't be a complement of the verb be in this case.


Note: "He must decide who he wants to be" is more idiomatic than "he must decide who to be".


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