<p>Most major air pollutants canot be seen, although large amounts of them concentrated in cities are visible as smog.</p>
<p>Why is "them" correct?</p>
<p>Why it should be wrong?</p>
<p>“large amounts of them …” is the subject and not the object of the sentence (correct me if im wrong)…</p>
<p>therefore a subjective pronoun (they) should be used, though it sounds wrong.</p>
<p>No. It’s not subjective. Unfortunately, I can’t tell why exactly. :(</p>
<p>thanks anyw! can anyone else help us?</p>
<p>By the way, it is wrong to say “It’s me”; the correct usage is “It’s I”. </p>
<p>Incorrect–>Correct</p>
<p>It’s me–>It’s I</p>
<p>That’s him–>That’s he</p>
<p>That’s them–>That’s they</p>
<p>Me too–> So do I</p>
<p>Ex.</p>
<p>He invited John and me. (object)</p>
<p>John and I were invited. (subject)</p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>
<p>The reason that “them” and not “they” should be used is that “them” is the object of the preposition “of.” Following a preposition, one always uses the accusative (objective) case, even if the prepositional phrase can be viewed as part of the subject of the sentence, as in this instance.</p>
<p>^
I don’t understand it. Can you explain again?</p>
<p>The subject of the clause that starts out with “although” is “large amounts.” The phrase “of them” could be classified as being part of the subject (correctly in my view), but it is a prepositional phrase that modifies “large amounts.” The fact that “them” is the object of the preposition “of” overrides the fact that it could be viewed as part of the subject. A pronoun that follows a preposition, as its object, is always in the accusative (objective) case and not in the nominative.</p>
<p>For example, one could write:
Most dogs bark frequently; many of them also chase squirrels.
One would not write “many of they also chase squirrels,” even though “many of them” is the subject of this sentence. </p>
<p>One could write:
Most dogs bark frequently; they also chase squirrels.
Now there is no preposition, so “them” becomes “they,” the true subject of the sentence.</p>
<p>OP and others: If you have time before the next SAT or ACT, and you are finding issues of this sort difficult, I would suggest that you look for the topic “diagramming sentences” on a web site or in an old-fashioned grammar book. The issue here is the structure of the sentence, really. Sentence diagrams will help a lot to clarify it.</p>
<p>^
Uh…! No! I though you were refering to my post about “That’s them”; thus, I got confused. Sure I know that it should be “them” in OPs sentence.</p>
<p>Thanks QuantMech! Can you help me with this question: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1138330-metaphors.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1138330-metaphors.html</a></p>
<p>Right, Mirage2000, all of your posts in #6 are correct–in post #7, I was referring to the OP’s original question, and not to your post #6.</p>
<p>I’ll take a look at the Metaphor question.</p>