Proper Personal Pronouns PLEASE!


Perhaps the most often violated rule in our language concerns pronouns. For the life of me, I don’t understand what the problem is with folks. Actually, I do know what is wrong. Most people never learned the cases of personal pronouns and don’t have the faintest idea of when to use them. So, here goes nothing; I’m attempting to explain one area in this post.



Personal pronouns—two cases



Subjective (nominative)—used as subjects, predicate nominatives, in comparisons using than or as. I,you he, she, it, we, you, they, who



Objective—used as direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of prepositions

                  me, you him, her, it, us, you, them, whom



Preposition—a word that shows the relationship of its object to another word in a sentence. 



Most people know common prepositions: over, about, above, between, on, for, etc. What they don’t know is when how to use the correct pronouns with them.

Incorrect: Keep this secret between you and I

                 The present was for you and I.

                 The fault for the wreck was place on you and I.



Okay, the way to check if the pronouns used as the object of preposition is correct is to say it aloud. For example, “between you” works. How does “between I” or “for I” or “on I” sound? If they sound all right, then I can’t help you. However, if these sound wrong with pronouns (they are), then use the objective form. Then you have



Keep this secret between you and me.

The present was for you and me.

The fault for the wreck was placed on you and me.  



Some people use the incorrect pronoun because they think it sounds more sophisticated. WRONG!!! The incorrect use of a pronoun is a sign of poor grammar background.



The goal is to put an end to this disgusting, widespread  misuse of pronouns with prepositions. Pass it along; don’t keep the information just between you and me.

2 comments:

Brian said...

Hi Joe,

I like your site, you have some interesting posts. My site My Perfect Pitch compliments yours, consisting of interesting articles from a published author, plus a free resource of over 1000 traditional book publishers currently accepting submissions - the largest on the web. Keep up the good work.

Regards, Brian

J.P. Grider said...

Between you and me, I like your post.