“This is he” isn’t passive voice anyway (although “a phone call where he was asked for by name” IS passive voice, and a dead awkward construction to boot). It’s merely a sentence in which the main verb is a form of “to be,” which does not automatically make it passive.
Active voice = the subject of the sentence is the person or thing performing the main action.
Passive voice = the subject of the sentence is the person or thing being acted upon.
Thus, “The minotaur is eating James” = active, even though it contains a form of “to be”; “James is being eaten by the minotaur” = passive.
Exactly, it’s just good grammar. I yelled at the TV twice (and annoyed my husband) when one of the characters in the movie we were watching said, “This is her.” Twice! Balls.
But I got to exasperate the spouse, which is a win.
If you think it as short for “This is her speaking”, that’s a different story.
ETA Chicago manual on-line sez
“This is she” is grammatically correct. The verb “to be” acts as a linking verb, equating subject and object. So this is she and she is this; “she” and “this” are one and the same, interchangeable, and to be truly interchangeable they must both play the same grammatical role—that of the subject.
FTR, I do answer the phone this way, or sometimes just, “This is.” But I just consider it an exception, and I’ve never agreed with the above explanation, because it doesn’t hold in parallel constructions:
If you’re looking at a police lineup, and you see the man what done you wrong, would you say, “That’s him!” or “That’s he!”?
Or if you’re looking at old family photos, and someone points to your cousin and says “Is this you?”, would you say, “No, that’s my cousin; this is me.” or “… this is I.”?
In these cases, I always use the object form, as does everyone I know, so I’m inclined to regard that as correct.
Based on a dozen emails received today, I have come to the conclusion that people are using Microsoft Office as their language tutor. That can be the only excuse for using “advice” as an intransitive verb.
It also looks like MS doesn’t care about the “myself” mistake, which is shocking since it’s such an easy rule to write into the usage editor.
The guideline of excluding the other person is one with which I am familiar, but there are situations where I am still not sure whether me or I is correct:
Bob is older than Bill and me.
Bob is older than Bill and I.
In the latter case, without Bill should it be “Bob is older than I” because of an implied “am” at the end?
