Expert: Jamie France-Hernandez - 9/8/2010

Question
a) All things come to he who waits.
b) All things come to him who waits.

Answer
Hello Reg,

Thank you for your question. The correct choice would be b) All things come to him who waits.

Here's why:

Because the pronoun is the object of the preposition "to," it should be in the objective case: "All things come to him who waits." The subject of the adjective (relative) clause "who waits" is "who," but "him" is not the subject of that clause - it is simply a pronoun that is modified by that clause. Its case is determined by the fact that it is the object of a preposition: All things come to him. The rest of the sentence is an "add-on" and it does not affect the case of the pronoun "him" used as the object of the preposition "to".

"Who waits" is a clause that modifies (but does not alter the form of) the objective pronoun "him". Thus,"All things come to him who waits."

I hope this helps:)

Jamie