'It is I who is' or 'It is I who am'?

Question

Which of these two sentences is correct?

It is I who is foolish, not you.

It is I who am foolish, not you.

(Incidentally, I am fully aware that the use of 'I' after 'is' is rather stilted, and that all but the most pedantic of grammarians would opt to use 'me' instead.)

Can you compare some real, cited examples, showing their contexts? Otherwise, doesn't it boil down to how poetic you want to be? In any case, how does "stilted" apply? — Robbie Goodwin, Oct 17 '21 at 20:57

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 17 '21 at 14:28

Asking Google produces this

Getting relative pronouns like "who" to agree with verbs can seem tricky. But it's actually quite easy. The pronoun "who" takes the same number and person as its antecedent, in this case "I." So "It is I who am" is correct in this case.

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 17 '21 at 00:49

-1

According to COCA https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/, "it is I who am" is correct. ! enter image description here

answered Oct 17 '21 at 00:49

Anshan Today

725

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I am not sure if such a survey of common usage implies correct usage – ChinG Oct 17 '21 at 13:50
@ChinG Ultimately, common usage wins. For example, we've generally abandoned our second person singular, useful though it can be. – user888379 Oct 17 '21 at 13:54
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What would be wrong with 4? You should not equate popularity with correctness. – Greybeard Oct 17 '21 at 17:12

'It is I who is' or 'It is I who am'?

2 Answers2