In honor of National Grammar day, let's all study some rules! The good teacher I am, I have presented to you rules in both written and visual form. I work hard to appeal to all of the multiple intelligences.
Below the song, is a little extra credit.
I or me?
Be careful to use the pronouns I and me, he and him, she and her, we and us, and they and them in the right place. Use I, we, etc. when you are talking about someone who has done something (i.e. who is the subject of the sentence), and use me, us, etc. when you are talking about someone who has had something done to them (i.e. who is the object of the sentence). People most often make mistakes over this when they are talking about more than one person:
- 'Me and Annie had a dog once'; 'Adrian and me were going out'. In these sentences you should use I, not me, because the two people are the subject in both. 'Annie and I had a dog once'; 'Adrian and I were going out'.
- 'Watch Helen and I while we show you'. You need me here, as the object of watch.
- 'Everything depends on you and I'. Use me, us, etc. after prepositions.
It's right to say 'between you and me', and wrong to say 'between you and I'. This is because a preposition such as 'between' should be followed by an object pronoun such as 'me', 'him', 'her', and 'us' rather than a subject pronoun such as 'I', 'he', 'she', and 'we'.
**Please note that the use of single quotation marks is a manner of style.
(H/T: AskOxford)
You can find the caption contest winners by clicking on THIS link.
7 comments:
Excellent post very interesting and I learned a lot. Do you know if there is a rule for bring and take? My step father claims there is but my resource teacher says there is not.
There is a difference. Since I'm at the time of day (up since 4:00 a.m.), here's an example and explanation from Grammar Girl:
"Whether you use bring or take depends on your point of reference for the action. The quick and dirty tip is that you ask people to bring things to the place you are, and you take things to the place you are going. As one listener named Simone put it, you bring things here and take things there. For example, I would ask Aardvark to bring Squiggly to my party next week, and then Aardvark would call Squiggly and ask, “May I take you to Grammar Girl's party?”
I am asking Aardvark to bring Squiggly because I am at the destination—from my perspective, Aardvark is bringing someone here. Aardvark is offering to take Squiggly because he is transporting someone to a remote destination—from Aardvark's perspective, he is taking someone there."
Here is the LINK for the full explanation.
See...dunderheaded tiredness--it should read. . .
There is a difference. Since I'm at "that" time of day (up since 4:00 a.m.), here's an example and explanation from Grammar Girl:
Okay, my turn.
Explain the difference between council and counsel.
O.k., Grasshopper:
Council:
Collectively, it is a group of people (an authoritative body), like a town council.
The town council accepted the mayor's proposal to raise taxes. (Hey, I'm from Jersey and that's all they do. Right?)
Counsel:
Counsel means to give or take advice. It can be used as a noun or verb, but it should not be used in place of council.
The lawyer counseled that I should take the plea bargain rather than go to jail.
That's why lawyers are called counsel/counselor.
So the council counselled the committee on the appropriate course of action.
Yes?
That would be a good government employee answer. Heh.
Btw., counseled is the U.S. way, counselled is the U.K. :) Either may be used, as far as I know.
Post a Comment