Is it correct to say “Do you know who John is?” or “Do you know whom John is?”? As far as I’m aware, John is the object, and therefore “whom” should be used. If not though, please let me know why.
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Whom sounds so bad, I hope it's wrong. – Yosef Baskin Jan 31 '22 at 00:29
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1It’s “who” because John is the subject of the subordinate clause “who John is”. You can tell that “John” is the subject because you would replace it with “he”: “Do you know who he is?” – herisson Jan 31 '22 at 00:32
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Isn’t John the object though? Aren’t you asking the person whether they know of John, which therefore makes him the object? – user445504 Jan 31 '22 at 00:40
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@user445504: To help avoid confusion, keep in mind the sentence "Do you know who he is?", which has the same structure. Your ear should tell you that we have to use "he", not "him", in this sentence. And that tells you that it's not correct to analyze this word as an object. "Do you know who he is" is a complex sentence: its structure is more complicated than subject-verb-object. "He" or "John" is the subject of the clause "who he/John is", and that clause as a whole (not just the word "he" or "John"), is the complement of the verb "know". – herisson Jan 31 '22 at 06:13
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@user445504 No: "John" is not an object, though it is complement of "be". Note that the verb "be" takes complements, not objects. "Be" takes nominative "who" in interrogative clauses like "who John is" (a subordinate interrogative clause functioning as complement of "know"). – BillJ Jan 31 '22 at 08:04