Grammar question: His sister and "he / him" live i

[hereinchina]

Hello,
I'm not sure if I should use "he / him" in the following sentence.
1. His sister and "he / him" live in Beijing.
I know that a good way to check for if the subjective pronoun is correct is by eliminating the begining subject and saying only the second subjective pronoun. You would say "He lives in Beijing" instead of "Him lives in Beijing. However, it just sounds better to me when you say "His sister and him live in Beijing." Is this expression sometimes used in colloquial (informal) speech?

[fluffyhamster]

Hi HIC! The honest answer is that the apparent choice probably doesn't and shouldn't really matter that much. (The only time I could imagine things ever becoming a problem would be if two pronouns, both differing in case, were for whatever reason brought into play, but who'd ever do that as opposed to simply saying just 'They...'?!). Students should just be happy that they('ve) master(ed) the use of the correct form for "single", stand-alone/uncoordinated/non-compound subjects and objects!

Anyway, perhaps take a look at page(s 106-) 107 (search for 'coordinations') in Huddleston & Pullum's A Student's Introduction to English Grammar, which is previewable on Google Books.

[Lorikeet]

Hello,
I'm not sure if I should use "he / him" in the following sentence.
1. His sister and "he / him" live in Beijing.
I know that a good way to check for if the subjective pronoun is correct is by eliminating the begining subject and saying only the second subjective pronoun. You would say "He lives in Beijing" instead of "Him lives in Beijing. However, it just sounds better to me when you say "His sister and him live in Beijing." Is this expression sometimes used in colloquial (informal) speech?

Hmm. "His sister and him live in Beijing" sounds really bad to me. I could accept "His sister and he live in Beijing." Why don't you want to use "He and his sister live in Beijing" instead? It sounds much better to me. I think we usually put the pronoun second when it's "I". " My sister and I live in Beijing."

[hereinchina]

Hello,
I want to thank both of you for your help.

[JasZhou]

I think we could say' his sister and he live in Beijing.', but the sentence' his sister and him live in Beijing' is wrong. Thank you !