[Grammar] President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a man confined to the wheelchair, but it was he w

[kite]

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a man confined to the wheelchair, but it was he who put America again on its feet. Do you see any error here? I have some confusion about the underlined parts. Would you please comment on those? I think "he" should be "him" (like: it was me) and "its" should be "his" (because he is not an animal so we do not use its for humans), but the thing is I have collected the sentence from one of IELTS books.:shock: I just want to make sure whether they are right or wrong.

Thanks.

 

[SoothingDave]

The feet belong to America, so "its" is correct.

The "he" is correct as well. After a linking verb, the subjective pronoun should be used.

"It was me" is an exception and is technically incorrect (according to the "rule" above.) Most natives feel pretentious saying "It is I."

 

[Barb_D]

The error I see is "confined to the wheelchair."
You didn't give us that as a choice, though.

 

[kite]

The feet belong to America, so "its" is correct.

The "he" is correct as well. After a linking verb, the subjective pronoun should be used.

"It was me" is an exception and is technically incorrect (according to the "rule" above.) Most natives feel pretentious saying "It is I."

So you mean that "It was me." is wrong, right? and there is no expression like that used in English language, right?

 

[kite]

The error I see is "confined to the wheelchair."
You didn't give us that as a choice, though.

I do not understand what the error you are pointing out there, but I actually I picked this from one of registered IELTS books. Yes! I didn't give that as a choice because I didn't notice that as an error and still I don't understand whether that is an error. But my problem is almost solved if only my last question is answered .

 

[Rover_KE]

So you mean that "It was me." is wrong, right? and there is no expression like that used in English language, right?

As Dave said, 'It was me' is technically incorrect, but most native speakers don't care and say it anyway.

 

[Barb_D]

There is more than one wheelchair in the world. He had to use a wheelchair, not THE wheelchair.

I split my usage on the nominative thing.
I do say "It's me" not "It's I" (because, as Dave says, that sounds pretentious) but I also say "This is she" when people ask for me on the phone and I'm the one who answered. (Or just "speaking" but not "This is her.")

Using third person, I do go with nominative, as this passage uses. "It was he who was responsible..." or "It was she who discovered..."