"It was them who cleaned the classroom."
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"It was they who cleaned the classroom?"
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1Who Killed Cock Robin? Not I, said the sparrow. Not me**, said the grammarian. – FumbleFingers May 18 '18 at 13:41
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What's the point? – math May 18 '18 at 13:52
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The point is grammarians tell us we should say *Not I, but in practice the vast majority of native speakers tend to ignore that anyway. Unfortunately, the standard nursery rhyme has the sparrow saying it "correctly", so what I wrote isn't strictly correct (if the sparrow had been a normal Anglophonic talking bird today, he's have said Not me!, and it would be the grammarian* correcting him to *Not I!*). – FumbleFingers May 18 '18 at 14:41
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Possible duplicate of "Who wants ice-cream?" — Should I say "(not) I" or "(not) me"? – FumbleFingers May 18 '18 at 14:53
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It was they cleaned the classroom. – Nigel J May 18 '18 at 15:00
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The supposed "duplicate" suggested by FumbleFingers is very remotely related to this question. For a more relevant post, see Barrie England's answer here, but keep in mind that it's not obvious that you would get the same results for the third-person singular pronoun as for the first-person singular pronoun: It is I who am at fault? – herisson May 18 '18 at 17:59
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Grammatically speaking, the second one (It is they) is correct. According to Grammar Girl:
... when a pronoun follows a linking verb, such as "is," the pronoun should be in the subject case.
Later on, she elaborates on the subject by saying:
Linking verbs are words like "is," "was," "were," "appear," and "seem," which don't describe an action so much as describe a state of being. When pronouns follow these non-action verbs, you use the subject pronouns such as "I," "she," "he," "they," and "we."
She also gives us a few examples:
Who called Jodie? It was he.
Who told you about it? It was I.
Who had the phone conversation? It must have been they.
Who cares? It is we.
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"It was them who cleaned the classroom."
Same as: We wouldn't want them to think we were doing anything immoral. He bent over, picked up her clothes and tossed them to her. Why had he hidden them - and why had he decided to reveal them?
maria
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