Learn English – Pronoun usage in “It ought to be him/he with whom you share your secrets, not me/I”

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It ought to be him with whom you share your secrets, not me.

Should "him" be replaced by "he" and "me" be replaced by "I"?

Best Answer

This sentence is already extremely stiff and formal sounding:

It ought to be him with whom you share your secrets, not me.

You can replace me with I without a change in meaning, but it becomes even more formal and even less natural:

It ought to be him with whom you share your secrets, not I.

In natural speech, people are far more likely to use not me. Of course, since your sentence is already hyper-formal, you might actually prefer to use the unnatural not I.

But if you'd like to use natural English, you could say something like this (depending on context):

You should tell him, not me.

Simple and to the point.

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