Pronoun - verb agreement (me / I)?

Question

Pronoun - verb agreement: Which is correct?
1.It is me that loves her, not him.
2.It is me that love her, not him.
Or should it be:
3.It is I that love her, not him.
(I know that 'I' is usually subject and 'me' object, and 'It' doesn't seem to be subject of 'love', so 'me' would be subject of love in the first 2 sentences, but is 'me' correct then, and if so, is it 3rd of 1st person? Or is only the last sentence correct with the use of 'I' to create that emphasis on myself?

To narrow things down, I want to leave out the "not him"/"not he" at the end, as 'him' or 'he' would necessarily follow 'me' or 'I' respectively .

And thanks for the corrections from 'that' to 'who'.

I am looking at erlampo's answer: "It is I who love her, not he."

As for carly, qualtahc, Serz and lynlions, how do you justify 'who loveS'? 'Who' is the subject of 'love(s)', who stands for 'I' (or me) which is the first person, not the third, so why the 's'?

On the other side (lynlions, Serz), agreed with 'It is me who...' The word that follows 'is' is an object, so isn't it indicated that 'me' should be used for that matter? Let's try the same form in the plural's first person. Ex: 'It is WE who must stand up'. It sounds awkward. I definitely would not say that in front of an audience... I would go with 'It is US who must stand up'. And even add "all of us", for the sake of it. Would I be wrong?

Note: I/We and Me/Us are respectively of the same function class.

Answer 1

It is me who loves her, not him
or
It is I who loves her, not he

In any case, the verb must agree with the pronoun "who" (we are referring to humans, so "that" is not an option) which is the subject of the subordinate clause, not with "I" which is the predicate (pro)noun ofthe main clause.

Whether one wants to go by traditional, Latin inspired grammar prescribing the nominative for predicate nouns after copula verbs (it is *I*) or by modern English syntax that does not need the Latin case system, but rather determines the "case" role of a pronoun or noun by its position left or right of the finite verb (it is *me*) is a secondary question. Personally, I find "it is *I*" sounds utterly pretentious.

EDIT: In response to your further remarks: "who", whether used as an interrogative or a relative pronoun always agrees with the 3rd person of the verb (in this case the 3rd person singular).
And as for the question "*I* or *me* as predicate pronoun", I think I have answered that already. Usage appears to allow both; according to linguistic theory, usage determines the rule; also the few (pronominal) remnants of an object case system English carries with it from the time when it used to be a more synthetic language (such as German or Latin) do not carry enough weight compared with the strong analytic tendencies of modern English syntax. So whether you follow the traditional rule "a predicate noun following a copula verb must be in the nominative" or rather the rule "English being a rather strict SVO language, a noun right of the finite verb must be in an object case" is pretty much up to the individual.

Answer 2

Well, "he" is also the subject, isn't it? Let's separate it and have a look:

I love her. He does not love her.

In these sentences, "I" and "he" are subjects, "love" the verb, and "her" the object.

Let's combine them:

Step 1: I love her; he does not.

Step 2 : It is I who loves her, not he. (Remember a person is not referred to as "that").

Now I agree that the final sentence sounds awkward, but I think it is the grammatically correct way of saying what you want. In many cases we do not use the grammatically correct form of the language in daily speech.

Still, I advise you to check with an English teacher.

Answer 3

It is I who love her, not he.
or if more simply:
I love her; he does not.

Please note that it is NOT correct to say "It is I who loveS her". The verb there has to agree with the subject. The subject is I. I love, not loves. You would not say "the pictures that is hanging on the wall" but "that ARE hanging". The only correct way to say this is "It is I who (or if you must THAT) love her".

Answer 4

the priority comes earlier the "of" in each and each sentence. In the two examples the respond is "has." in case you exclude the extraneous words, it could make it greater convenient. Ex. a million: it is one that has Ex. 2: you are the only person who has

Answer 5

the 2 answeres before me have resolved very well the issue, I have nothing to add.

Answer 6

It is I who loves her, not he.