One of the most common errors I see from writers who are seeking a more formal tone is the mixing up of subject and object pronouns:
“She was talking to him and I”
“Me and him were walking to the shop”
When determining the subject or object in a sentence, look at the perspective of the scene, who/what is the sentence talking about? I have explored this difference in more detail in my post about clauses, but essentially, pronouns have specific functions depending on their form.
He/she/I are all subject pronouns, whereas him/her/me are all object pronouns. So, there are two important rules when grouping pronouns together (as in the above).
- The pronouns have to match in terms of whether they are the object or subject form
- ‘I’ should come after ‘he/she’, but ‘me’ should come before ‘him/her’
The correct form of the first examples are:
“She was talking to me and him”
“He and I were walking to the shop”
An easy way to remember this is by looking at the pronouns individually, removing each one and looking at how the sentence reads. It is clear that “she was talking to I” is incorrect, and the same can be applied to “him was walking to the shop.”
The difference between whom and who is the same principle. “Who” is a subject pronoun and “whom” is an object pronoun. If you are ever confused, replace the who or whom with he or him.
In the Hemingway novel “For whom the bell tolls”, this is equivalent to “For him the bell tolls” (or “the bell tolls for him”). Compare this to “For he the bell tolls” (or “the bell tolls for he”) and you can see the difference.
For more tips on grammar and punctuation check our blog, with new posts ever Tuesday and Thursday. Or you can follow us on Twitter @StetOnline.
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