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In English, we could answer the question "Who ate the cake?" with

It was him.

I don't know the reason why we use the accusative "him", even though the person is the subject of eating the cake, not the object.

In German, is it the same?

Wer aß den Kuchen? Es war ihn.

Mika H.
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German is different and uses the nominative:

Er war's. Er war es. Das war er.

Note the word order; es can't be in initial position here.

chirlu
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    Colloquial, impolite but used by children: "Der war's! ;) – Takkat Sep 09 '13 at 06:57
  • Agree. And addendum: Not really sure, but I think "Meine Schuld!" will sometimes be used where in English one would say "It was me!" ("Ich war´s!") (in addition to "[That was] my fault!"). I.e. translating "It was me! I did it!" with "Meine Schuld! Das war ich!" appears more natural to me than the obvious solution "Ich war´s! Ich hab das getan!". – TheBlastOne Sep 09 '13 at 09:31
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    Technically one could probably also say "Es war (der) [Name]". – haxor789 May 11 '22 at 09:32
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    "Es war er" klingt zwar nicht besonders gut, aber falsch ist es nicht. – Paul Frost May 11 '22 at 22:35
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In English as well as in German the correct case is Nominativ and its respective counterpart in English. It is true that colloquially one might use "It is me" and in fact a vast majority use it that way. If you are studying in Oxford or Cambridge, though, you will be trained to answer "Who is this" by "It is I".

The same with independent clauses, i.e.:

It is I who have learned english. correct
It is me who have learned english. incorrect

In this case the latter is not even colloquially possible but outright wrong.

In german this distinction between colloquial use of the object case and grammatically correct nominative doesn't exist, always Nominativ is used:

Ich war das.

bakunin
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  • I mean you already say it's wrong but wouldn't the "incorrect" sentence be "It's me who HAS learned english"? – haxor789 May 11 '22 at 09:28
  • You are right, this would also be wrong - it would be even "wronger". See also https://www.englishforums.com/English/ThisIsMeOrThisIsI/vwmh/post.htm – bakunin May 13 '22 at 05:33
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The verb "sein" or to be in English is known as a linking verb. This links the nominative and the predicate nominative together.

In English you would say "It was I" or "It was he, (who at the cake). That's why in German too you would use "Er war's." or "Er war es, (der den Kuchen aß).

Stephen Sov
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