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There is a sentence in my book

It was me that raised the alarm

I am completely confused with this construction. "I" is used with it but here "me" is placed.

Second confusion is "who" is used for living things but here "that" is used.

Is it grammatically correct? If yes please explain to me.

Andrew
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Kshitij Singh
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  • What you're saying is that it should be, "It was I who* raised the alarm"*? – Andrew Nov 07 '18 at 17:42
  • You're quite right that "who" is *only* used for living things. But here "that" can be used for *any* referent. Except that at least some people would say it makes a difference whether the context is a restrictive or non-restrictive clause. – FumbleFingers Nov 07 '18 at 17:54
  • It's fine with accusative "me". Contrary to common believe, there is no rule of English requiring a nominative form where a pronoun is complement of the verb "be". With personal antecedents, there is a preference for "who" when the relativised element is subject (as in your example) and for the non-wh elsewhere. But it is just a preference: "It was me that raised the alarm" is perfectly grammatical. – BillJ Nov 07 '18 at 19:14

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