Me and I and what's the difference anyway?

My grandfather was a teacher. He taught in country schools so he was used teaching everything to any age group. Car trips (to an English-geek like me) were always fun because he would give me words to spell and I loved spelling (you can see it starts young!). But Grandad also liked to correct our grammar. This was confusing to a child of ten who had not been taught grammar at school beyond what nouns, verbs and adjectives were. One lesson really stuck with me. On that day I had got me and I mixed up and Grandad shared a surefire way of getting it right. I'll let you into his secret, but first let's look at the theory.


So what exactly am I talking about? You know, when you are emailing your friends and you want to say

Come to the movies tonight. Jordan, Harper and I are going.

Which is somehow different from

Darcy has invited Jordan, Harper and me to the movies.

But why should it be different? Well, because I is a subject pronoun and me is an object pronoun. Their purpose in the sentence decides which one you should use. This roughly translates to mean that after verbs and prepositions use me; before verbs use I.

So, looking at our examples

Come to the movies tonight. Jordan, Harper and I are going.

In this example, the names are all listed before the verb ('are') so we use I.

  Darcy has invited Jordan, Harper and me to the movies.

The list of names is after the verb ('invited') so we use me.

And what was that surefire tip of Grandad's? The one that meant that you didn't have to know what a verb or a preposition was?

Take out the other names in the sentence and see if it still works.

Come to the movies tonight. I am going.

Darcy has invited me to the movies.

It works!

 

That or which?

Carrying on the theme of pairs of words, this week we are looking at that and which. These two regularly get mixed up. And then there's that bit about whether you should use a comma. It all gets a bit fraught.

You know that the aim of this blog is to make writing as simple as possible. So, let's see if we can make this easy.

Using that

Sometimes in a sentence you want to define which thing you are talking about. If you were writing about one of these two kittens you might say:

The kitten that is black and grey is my favourite.

Tough for the little ginger kitten, but you've left your readers in no doubt as to which kitten you prefer. And see how that that fits so snugly into the sentence. So, we use that for a defining clause - a clause that tells us 'which one'.

Using which

What if you were telling your friends about your new kitten and puppy? You want to tell them all about your new pets - and you already have a favourite!

The kitten, which is black and grey, is my favourite.

Now they know a little more about your favourite pet (nothing about the puppy, though). The pair of commas (after 'kitten' and 'grey') contain the extra information in a non-defining clause. You could take that clause out of the sentence and it would still make sense, we just wouldn't know as much about the kitten.

Summing it all up

Use that when you are defining which thing you are talking about. It doesn't need a comma.

Use which when you are giving extra information. Use a pair of commas to corral that extra information. If you take out the words between the commas the sentence will still make sense.

Next time someone says to you "should it be that or which?" you can casually say to them that it depends if they are using it in a defining or non-defining clause. They will be impressed.

Fewer or less?

Last week we looked at amount and number and talked about how frequently they get misused. This week's pair of words are just as misunderstood.

Fewer or  less: how are we supposed to know which one to use? As with the whole of the English language, these words are in a state of change - but that doesn't mean that you can use them any which way. The grammar police out there will soon let you know when you get it wrong.

Let's make it easy (you like easy, right?) and make a couple of simple rules.

1. Use fewer when you mean 'a smaller number of...'.
2. Use less when you mean 'a smaller quantity or amount of...'.

So how does that look in the real world?

There are fewer marbles in the toy box because Sam dropped half of them out of the window.

There is less mess in the playroom now that Sam has thrown all his toys out of the window.

 

Fewer Than and Less Than

You can follow the same rules for fewer than and less than.

Fewer than twenty marbles are left in the toy box.

Less than half the mess was left after Sam had thrown his marbles out of the window.

You can do a little double check if you want to by changing your sentences around a bit and using much or many.

How many marbles are there? There are fewer than before because Sam has been careless.

How much mess is there? There is less than before because Sam has been busy throwing his toys out of the window.

 

Plurals of Measurement

What about money and time? Surely we don't say The new shirt cost fewer than $30? You're right, we don't. When it comes to time and money it's best to think of it as a total amount and so use less.

The new shirts cost less than $30 each so I bought two.

It was less than 50 km from the station to our house so I walked.

So, remember the rules above? Let's add one more...

1. Use fewer when you mean 'a smaller number of...'.
2. Use less when you mean 'a smaller quantity or amount of...'.
3. Use less than when you are dealing with an 'amount' of time or money.

Easier than you thought.