“Among those who passed me…” “Among they who passed me…” “Among them who passed me…”
I can think of reasons to support any of the above. “Those” being elliptical for “those people;” “they” being the co-subject of “passed me;” and “them” as “Among” is a preposition and “who” is the subject of a dependent modifying clause. “Them” does not sound right. “Those” seems right. But “they” sounds better to my ear.
I think ‘Among those who passed me’ is fine.
‘Among they’ sounds like some lame non-standard usage. So unless you are around folks regularly talking like that you will have trouble conveying your meaning.
Among them is fine by me.
"Those who failed [the exam] will have to re-sit.
Never, “Them who failed” or “They who failed.”
Well, sure. “Those who failed,” being short for “Those people who failed.” And “Them who failed,” obviously, but what if you add a preposition, as I did? “Among them who failed”? I do not think that’s correct but does not sound as wrong as it follows a preposition. OTOH, “They who failed” does not sound so incorrect, as “they” can be the co-subject with “who.” You have given me conclusions but no reason as to which one is correct and which two are incorrect.
I am not a grammar expert (though I did get pretty good at diagramming sentences back in freshman English class), but I believe that the object of the preposition “among” is the phrase “those who failed.”
“Among those who failed” is the only one of the three that sounds right to me, but I couldn’t give you a formal justification.
“They” is simply wrong (object of preposition, who is the subject of failed), “them” sounds awkward but is not wrong. “Those” is normal usage.
Are “them” and “those” actually different parts of speech? IOW, is there any instance when one would be correct, but not the other?
Those [people] simply means “them”, no?
That’s poetic license.