So, I’m happily reading a blog, I’m editing a fanfic for a fellow writer, or I’m talking to a friend. One trendy eyesore–or earsore, as the case may be–always smacks me in the face.
COMPLETE THIS SENTENCE WITH THE CORRECT PRONOUN:
“She waited for him and ____ to get off the bus.”
A. me
B. I
If you answered ‘I,’ try again.
“She waited for him and me to get off the bus.”
This is correct.
Notice the prepositional phrase ‘for him and me.’ Prepositional phrases have objects. The objects of the preposition ‘for’ are ‘him and me.’ ‘I’ is a subject pronoun, not an object pronoun.
To be certain you are using the correct pronoun, remove the first object of the preposition:
“She waited for ___ to get off the bus.”
You’d say, “She waited for me to get off the bus.” You wouldn’t say, “She waited for I to get off the bus.”
“They went to the party with my husband and I.”
They went to the party with me, not with I.
It sounds so proper, using ‘I,’ I know. The rules of the English language can be confusing, but this one really is logical.
Thank you!! It really bothers me when I hear someone like a newscaster (who supposedly is a professional communicator) misuse the subjective case of pronouns like this. I’m sure I make grammatical (and spelling) mistakes, too, though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I, too, make bunches of mistakes. (You’ve corrected some on this blog, and I appreciate that!) That doesn’t mean I can’t share a rule of grammar that might help someone, right?
LikeLike
Right! And your correction is sweetly written and easy to understand. That’s why I said “thanks!”
LikeLike
It was painful for you to type the title of this post wasn’t it? 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lol! You know me so well.
LikeLike