You mentioned that we should keep it alive in formal language, but why not in informal speech as well? Or is it too late for that? I think that if we teach the proper forms, that perhaps we can arrest the dwindling spiral of proper speech to some degree. People get so used to speaking slang that it becomes the new language.
When teachers and parents alike are not speaking proper language, it can be a losing battle. Poor grammar is rampant in the media and you even see it in the books with which we teach our children to read. I personally think it is because for decades now, it has not been taught fully in schools and thus not handed down through the generations. It is interesting to hear the reasons for not speaking grammatically correct that people write in to different sites I’ve visited. Correct grammar is important, but grammarians have fallen into the error of treating words like numbers, with fixed values in all situations. Initial “there” and initial “that’s” lead to different phrasing. Even in writing, it would look and sound bizarre to write “that’s she at the door now,” even though the pronoun stands in a subject relationship with “that.” On the other hand, one cannot say “there’s her at the door now,” and no native speaker would say that. Thus, “that’s her at the door now” is correct grammar, because “her” conveys the desired phrasing, which includes emphasis and tone. Just as the French change final “je” to “moi,” for euphony, many final uses of “me” as the subject are perfectly correct in English, because the usage conveys qualities of speech not captured by word-rules disconnected from phrasing. English grammarians apply rules for individual words, such as pronouns, mechanically, with no regard for phrasing.
Him and me completed the job for Arlene.Īctually, correct grammar takes into account the full range of meaning, including things like tone, emphasis and euphony. Him and I completed the job for Arlene.ĢD. He and me completed the job for Arlene.ĢC. He and I completed the job for Arlene.ĢB. Arlene asked him and me to complete the job.ĢA. Arlene asked him and I to complete the job.ġD. Arlene asked he and me to complete the job.ġC. Arlene asked he and I to complete the job.ġB. (For those of you with some grammar background, you and me in that sentence are both objects of the preposition between.)ġA. Would you say, “Please give it to I”? Of course not.Įxample: Between you and me, I think Sandy cheated.Īgain, me is not the subject nor does it follow one of those state-of-being verbs. “I” and “me” follow the same rules as all other pronouns.
(Remember, leave out one of the pronouns and you will be able to hear the correct answer.) Many of us have been brainwashed to believe that “I” is somehow more correct than “me.” Not so. Rule: Use one of the object pronouns when the pronoun is not a subject and it doesn’t follow a state-of-being verb. The next rule does sound right to most of us. However, if I am taking an exam or writing a report, I will try to spot these state-of-being verbs and check my pronoun usage. Frankly, if I knock on someone’s door and am asked, “Who is it?” I am not going to say, “It is I” for fear that the person on the other side of the door will think I’m weird and never open up. We speak informally but must write more formally. This is a good time to discuss the difference between spoken language and written language, particularly when it comes to tests and formal papers. Rule: Use a subject pronoun following state-of-being verbs such as am, are, is, was, were, appeared, seemed, etc.īecause we don’t speak this way, we can’t use our ear to help us with this rule. Now, this next rule is difficult because it doesn’t sound right to most of us. It probably won’t sound right to you to say, “Him will. ” You can remember the correct pronouns by saying each pronoun alone in the sentence. Sometimes we want to say, “Him and me will.
Who will meet at the gym? He will meet at the gym. Usually, these subject pronouns sound right to most of us. Rule: Use one of the subject pronouns when it is the subject of the sentence.
The following rule not only makes sense but is simple. Mine, my, yours, his, hers, her, its, ours, theirs We can divide pronouns into three categories: Let me help you use pronouns correctly without any unnecessary jargon.įirst, let’s define a pronoun: a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun.
You don’t need to learn how to diagram a sentence to be able to learn the rules of grammar and punctuation.