That's not a substitution, though. One might be tempted to think that if the answer is "to him" that the question must have "whom." but you can't rightly ask "whom was awake last night?" The answer could be "Him!"
Wrong again. The answer can never be him. You can’t say, “him was awake last night”. You say, “he was awake last night”. So the question can never be, “whom was awake”, it would always be, “who was awake last night?”
You are thinking in the shortened one word answers, but forgetting what they are shortened from. If someone asks, “who punched that big hole in that wall?”, you cannot say, “him did”. You say, “he did”, or even shortened further to “he”, if you are an extra lazy non white.
You might wanna go back to elementary school, dear fagguete
Wrong again. The answer can never be him.
Oh, I get it:
Proper English
Q: Who was awake last night? A: He.
Improper English:
Q: Who was awake last night? A: Him.
Thanks, man.
You are thinking in the shortened one word answers, but forgetting what they are shortened from.
They are not shortened, they are pronouns. Pronouns take the place of nouns. It's a substitution, not an abbreviation.
Q: Who punched that big hole in the wall? A: Bob
is the linguistically the same as
Q: Who punched that big hole in the wall? A: Him (pointing at Bob)
It might be kind of common to say “him” in response to the example question above, but it’s just wrong. The answer should be “he did” (pointing at Bob). However, were the question “who was it?”, for example, the answer can definitely be “it was him” or “him” (pointing at Bob). Because it and him are objects in this case.
Anyway, I know what you mean, kinda. It’s just wrong usage that many people might have, unfortunately, gotten used to.
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