4.3 Pronoun problems Flashcards
Me, myself, I
When it comes to ‘me’, ‘myself’, and ‘I’, the correct word to use depends on whether you’re the
subject or the object of a sentence.
Let’s look at the parts of a sentence.
1-The subject of a sentence tells the reader who or what the sentence is about.
2-The verb conveys what the action or state of the subject is, and
3-the object of the sentence tells the reader who or what is affected by the subject’s action.
In the sentence ‘she gave the plans to the builder’, ‘she’ is the subject, ‘gave’ is the verb, ‘the plans’ are the direct object, and ‘the builder’ is the indirect object.
Use ‘I’ when you are the subject of the sentence,
even if you are referring to someone else as well as yourself.
‘I drank the milk’.
‘Ben and I ate breakfast’.
Use ‘me’ when you are the direct or indirect object of your sentence.
‘The girl saw me’.
‘He made a sandwich for me’.
Here’s a simple test to figure out whether you are the object to the sentence, and to use ‘me’, or the subject, and to use ‘I’:
‘The supervisor congratulated Josie and me’ is correct, because you could just as easily say
‘the supervisor congratulated me’; not ‘I’.
You should use ‘myself’ only emphatically or reflexively.
‘I myself knew the answer’. This sentence would have the same meaning without ‘myself’.
The word ‘myself’ adds emphasis.
‘I told myself that this would be the last time’.
In this sentence I am both the subject and the object.
I am doing the telling, and being told. ‘Myself’ is the correct word to use.
Pronoun agreement
The pronoun must agree in person, number, and gender with the noun that it substitutes for and refers to.
The link needs to be close, clear, explicit, specific, and unmistakable.
A pronoun must unambiguously connect with its antecedent.
Let’s look at this sentence: ‘The chef and her daughter were pleased with her progress’.
Is it clear whether we are referring to the progress of the chef, or her daughter? Can you see why it’s important for a pronoun to agree with its antecedent?
Who or whom?
Finally, we come to the question of ‘who’ or ‘whom’.
Many writers believe that ‘whom’ is on its way out because it can sound very pompous.
Some even believe it’s circling the drain. However, it is still used in expressions like ‘to whom it may concern’.
In the sentence ‘the girl whom you’ve been dancing with is on her way to the top’, most writers would use ‘who’ rather than ‘whom’, and it’s fine to do that.
