As to grammar and idiom, is the following extract correct: “… if you know the man or are him, call …”?

Question

Obviously, my questions refers to the pronoun him. Am I wrong to suppose that the use of the subject case pronoun he instead of him would not improve the previous statement? What about this one: “… if you know the man or are the man, call …”? Can you come up with a natural sounding wording?

See also http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/4032/which-is-correct-this-is-her-or-this-is-she — anemone, May 18 '15 at 11:34
@RegDwigнt: "Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there." — Robusto, May 18 '15 at 12:32
Why use deletions and pronoun at all? If you know this man, or if you are this man, ... — John Lawler, Sep 15 '15 at 16:59
Could the man be a woman? Could a person be the one? Could the one be two? — Stan, Jun 12 '16 at 23:11
This sounds subjective but a more natural sounding alternative may be: if you are the man (in question) or know him, call … — alwayslearning, Sep 11 '16 at 15:24

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

1

Yes, it is correct.

“… if you know the man or are him, call …”

can be separated out into two separate phrases:

“… if you know the man, call …”

“… if you are him, call …”?

both of which are grammatically valid.

edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

Community

1

answered May 09 '17 at 13:52

AndyT

14,793

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 18 '15 at 12:29

0

Alternatively you could say "If you or someone you know is the man..."

answered May 18 '15 at 12:29

Sherif

63
1
4

2

People don't like that because the verb cannot agree with both subjects ("If you ... is the man"). – Hellion May 18 '15 at 14:37
True, but isn't it more concise then using both 'man' and 'him'?. I ran a search and it seems to be commonly used. – Sherif May 18 '15 at 16:06

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 10 '17 at 09:57

Consider using an alternate sentence,

If you are the man, or [you] know him, please call ...

which is grammatically (and importantly, also naturally) correct.

Otherwise,

If you know the man, or you are him, please call ...

is only a three-letter word more, but also sounds natural and allows the order of concepts in the original phrasing to be kept.

As to grammar and idiom, is the following extract correct: “… if you know the man or are him, call …”?

3 Answers3