Monday, April 11, 2011

Blogger Tricks

Blogger Tricks

Monday, February 28, 2011

Me, myself and I

In the old days when people studied traditional grammar, we could simply say, “The first person singular pronoun is ‘I’ when it’s a subject and ‘me’ when it’s an object,” but now few people know what that means. Let’s see if we can apply some common sense here. The misuse of “I” and “myself” for “me” is caused by nervousness about “me.” Educated people know that “Jim and me are goin’ down to slop the hogs,” is not elegant speech, not “correct.” It should be “Jim and I” because if I were slopping the hogs alone I would never say “Me is going. . . .” If you refer to yourself first, the same rule applies: It’s not “Me and Jim are going” but “Jim and I are going.”

So far so good. But the notion that there is something wrong with “me” leads people to overcorrect and avoid it where it is perfectly alright on the 'street'. People will say “The document had to be signed by both Susan and I” when the statement, “The document had to be signed by both Susan and me is fine in common language.”

All this confusion can easily be avoided if you just remove the second party from the sentences where you feel tempted to use “myself” as an object or feel nervous about “me.” You wouldn’t say, “The IRS sent the refund check to I,” so you shouldn’t say “The IRS sent the refund check to my wife and I” either.

Trying even harder to avoid the lowly “me,” many people will substitute “myself,” as in “the suspect uttered epithets at Officer O’Leary and myself.” Conservatives often object to this sort of use of “myself” when “me” or “I” would do. It’s usually appropriate to use “myself” when you have used “I” earlier in the same sentence: “I am not particularly fond of goat cheese myself.” “I kept half the loot for myself.” “Myself” is also fine in expressions like “young people like myself” or “a picture of my boyfriend and myself.” In informal English, beginning a sentence with “myself” to express an opinion is widely accepted: “Myself, I can’t stand dried parmesan cheese.” In all of these instances you are emphasizing your own role in the sentence, and “myself” helps do that.

On a related point, those who continue to announce “It is I” have traditional grammatical correctness on their side, but they are vastly outnumbered by those who proudly boast “it’s me!” There’s not much that can be done about this now. Similarly, if a caller asks for Susan and Susan answers “This is she,” her somewhat antiquated correctness is likely to startle the questioner into confusion.

More about 'me.'

Consider the following sentence: You and I should have lunch.

Is the correct form of this sentence You and I ... or You and me ...? This is a common source of confusion in English.

Fortunately, there's an easy way to decide whether to use I or me in such sentences. All you have to do is drop the word you then try the sentence with I and me one at a time. For example:

I should have lunch.
Me should have lunch.
Clearly the preferred form in this case is I; thus, the original sentence was correct to use you and I.

Here's another example: He'll blame you and I. Drop the word you then try the sentence with I and me one at a time, like so:

He'll blame I.
He'll blame me.
You can see that the second of these is correct. This means that the original sentence should have been: He'll blame you and me.

Easy.

On a related note, when using phrases such as you and me, you and I or them and us, it has traditionally been considered courteous to place the reference to yourself last. For example, we prefer:

He'll ask you and me later.
over:

He'll ask me and you later.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

English Resources: Grammar and Vocabulary Tools


See the lists to the right please. ---->>>>>

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

caddy corner

caddy corner - 1 definition - diagonally opposite from the point where you are now, as if standing on one corner in a square.

Monday, December 21, 2009

To, Too, and Two:

1.Two = 2;
2.To = at, toward; to you, to the tree, to do something;
3.Too = also, and, more; too much, include him too;
4.She wants to (play) too.
5.He brought two horses to the stable too.

Monday, April 20, 2009

00:00 Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
7:00
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9:15
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10:45
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12:15
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Thursday, December 4, 2008

Prepositions:

aboard
about
above
absent
according to
across
after
against
ahead of
along
alongside
amid
amidst
among
around
as
as far as
as well as
at
atop
before
behind
below
beneath
beside
between
by
by means of
despite
down

due to
during
except
far from
following
for
from
in
in addition to
in case of
in front of
in place of
in spite of
inside
inside of
instead of
in to (into)
like
mid
minus
near
near to
next
next to
notwithstanding
of
off
on
on account of
on behalf of
on top of

on to (onto)
opposite
out of
outside
outside of
owing to
over
past
plus
prior to
regarding
round
save
since
than
through
throughout
till
times
to
toward
under
underneath
until
up
upon
with
with regards to
within
without