poor him or poor he

[allthewayanime]

When I feel like pitying someone , which one should I choose : poor he or poor him?

[5jj]

Poor him.

[allthewayanime]

But isn't 'he' the subject? Shouldn't it be poor he? Could you give me a further explanation,please?

[birdeen's call]

While googling this, I came across this statement:

free-standing pronouns are accusative, even when they're interpreted as subjects: Who did that? Me.

I've been thinking:

Who did that? Him. (not "he") -- I agree
Who did that? Them. (not "they") -- I think I agree, although this is not something I've heard a lot.
Who did that? Her. (not "she") -- My first thought was "no, it's 'she', definitely". Now I'm not sure. It's "poor her", this I know.

What do you think? (It's only loosely related to the original question, I know, but it is.)

PS: OK, after a while I'm sure

Who did that? Her.

is more natural. But it doesn't mean that I'm right.

[5jj]

Who did that? Her.

is more natural. But it doesn't mean that I'm right.

The purist would prefer 'she', but most of us say 'her'. You can get round it by saying 'she did'.

[allthewayanime]

Well, I think you're right.It wouldn't sound natural if you said :Who did it? I. ( it woul definitely be ,if you want to use the subject pronoun' I did it' and not 'I' by itself)

[bhaisahab]

The purist would prefer 'she', but most of us say 'her'. You can get round it by saying 'she did'.

I venture to suggest that no living native speaker would say "she". It is, of course, impossible for any deceased person to say it.

[Barb_D]

It is, of course, impossible for any deceased person to say it.

Clearly, you hvaen't been helping with all the posts from episodes of the TV series The Ghost Whisperer!