Stop That! It's Stupid: "There ain't nobody here but we chickens!"
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 10:27AM Dear Conrad
I saw you on the television news last night talking about your company's takeover bid for the big chicken feed concern in Saskatchewan. Sounds like a good move to me, but I don't pretend to know the chicken business. You know what's best for you and your company.
Forgive me for pointing out something that I do know, though.
In your comments (no doubt you were nervous in front of the cameras and this is why you misspoke yourself) you said:
"That's for the government regulators to sort out, not we entrepreneurs."
Now that it's laid before you in black and white, I suppose you see the problem, eh?
Damned pronouns! More trouble than they're worth.
Try a few of these on and you'll see the problem right away.
Just shoot I!
I lost he in the crowd .
All right, too obvious.
I've got to be me!
In the first example, everybody knows I should be me.
Why?
Because it's the object of the verb (shoot).
Just shoot me!
In the second example, he should be him, for the same reason: it's the object of the verb (lost).
I lost him in the crowd.
Understand the principle?
A pronoun after a verb has to be the object:
me, him, her, us, them.
Now look at these examples.
Give the money to I.
I sent the email to she.
Still too obvious, but it's a slightly different error.
For me to know and you to find out
Nobody would say "Give the money to I" (except maybe Lorelei in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes).
Give the money to me.
And nobody would say, "I sent the email to she."
And the principle here? Similar to the one about the verb.
A pronoun after a preposition has to be the object: me, him, her, us, them.
to me; about him; for her; with us; from them.
So, in your sentence, "That's for the government regulators to sort out, not we entrepreneurs," the preposition "for" applies to the government regulators and it applies to "we," i.e., to "us."
"That's for the government regulators to sort out, not (for) us entrepreneurs (to sort out)."
See?
It doesn't matter that there's a noun (government regulators) between the preposition (for) and the pronoun (us).
Any noun or pronoun following the preposition is the object of that preposition.
My uncle left his fortune to my sister and (to) me.
And by the way, it doesn't make any difference which order you place them in, they are still both objects:
My uncle left his fortune to me and (to) my sister.
Between you and me, this sucks.
Between me and you, this sucks.
Get it?
I hope this clears things up for you. I wouldn't want you to embarrass yourself again on national television. At least, not because of your English.
Just let me know if I can help in any way.
Yours fondly
Uncle Jack
* STOP THAT! IT'S STUPID! | tagged English, grammar, pronouns, style, usage, writing | Post a Comment 
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