"only US" or "only WE"?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

I’m sure this will sound trivial to most of you, but yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine and was assailed by doubt at some point…
What form is (more) correct?

Only US/ Only WE can settle the problem

Thank you very much!

2

It should be, “Only we can settle the problem,” because the pronoun here is the subject and should be in the subject form. Take out “only”, and you can see that, “Us can settle the problem,” is definitely wrong.

3

Thank you Jamie!
I followed the very same line of reasoning, but I suspected that the peculiar emphatic construction introduced by “only” could imply the use of a personal pronoun complement.
Thank you very much again for your help!

4

To emphasize the subject a bit more, you could also turn the sentence around and say: We are the only ones who can settle the problem.

Moreover, the phrase ‘it’s (only) us’ is also commonly used. Likewise, in everyday English you would say ‘it’s me’ – ‘it’s I’ would sound far too pedantic and stuffy. It’s one of those cases where even grammar experts advise breaking the rule.

5

Another one: Once I saw some proofreaders and a writer go around and around over the sentence, “Here’s you.” “Here you are,” would have conveyed the wrong message, and, “Here are you,” sounded ungrammatical even though it was correct. Finally we just left it as, “Here’s you.”

6

Hi Jamie,

You said:

All the same really aren’t they? Or are they?

Here’s you telling Polly about the right case for the pronoun
That’s you doing it now and no-one else is.

Here you are telling everyone about the proof reader
Look at what you’re doing now!

Here are you telling us about something else
Who said you could do that?

Well, Polly I imagine you must be surprised at all this attention.

Happy Easter

Alan

7

Thank you Conchita, Jamie and Alan!
Your remarks are really precious.

[color=indigo]Happy Easter (or Buona Pasqua, if you prefer!)