Some common mistakes that many of us make when writing (not just in novels).
I or Me?
A) Gloria took a photo of David and me.
B) Gloria took a photo of David and I.
There are 19 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 3,947 times. The latest Post () was by Splinter.
Some common mistakes that many of us make when writing (not just in novels).
I or Me?
A) Gloria took a photo of David and me.
B) Gloria took a photo of David and I.
Hope I’m not spoiling this, but the way I learned to resolve issues like this is to recast the sentence with a single subject:
Some common mistakes that many of us make when writing (not just in novels).
.
I or Me?.
A) Gloria took a photo of David and me.
B) Gloria took a photo of David and I.
Gloria took a photo of ... ? Me!
So the correct answer is A).
I confess to saying "My brother and I" when I was younger.
How about The King And I?
I confess to saying "My brother and I" when I was younger.
How about The King And I?
Tricky! Depends on subject or object:
She took a picture of The King and Me.
The King and I took a walk.
She took a picture of The King and Me.
-- unless she was at the cinema for a return of the Yul Brenner classic and was moved to photograph it. In that case,
She took a picture of "The King and I."
-- unless she was at the cinema for a return of the Yul Brenner classic and was moved to photograph it. In that case,
She took a picture of "The King and I."
... unless you attended the event with a monarch, in which case “She took a picture of the King and me at ‘The King and I.’”
“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.” ~ Cyril Connolly
When criticized for occasionally ending a sentence on a preposition, Winston Churchill replied, "This is the type of errant pedantry up with which I will not put." Churchill's reply satirizes the strict adherence to this rule. No one is urging you to write, "Where is Johnny at?" or "Where are you going to?" The best, most effective communication sounds and feels natural, and if that means writing, "Here is the file the list belongs with" instead of "Here is the file with which the list belongs," then write it that way.
I love Churchill's reply.
I love Churchill’s reply too. Language should sound natural, not strained. (This is one of the reasons I’d love to see “whom” buried: it is so often misused by people trying to sound erudite, and it nearly always sounds contorted.)
I’m a firm believer in ending sentences with prepositions when the result is better sentence flow. Ditto with split infinitives, contractions, and starting sentences with conjunctions.
Good common sense article, Splinter .
"For Whom The Bell Tolls."?
Correctly used: object of preposition “for.” I’d never accuse John Donne of misusing any particle of the language.
Or Ernest Hemingway.
Here’s your easy grammar quiz for October:
Their, There, and They’re.
6/7
Your editor asked: Which did you miss?
6/7 Missed the first ?.
Your editor asked: Which did you miss?
Number 1
Normalcy or normality? I use the latter but notice that our cousins in the transatlantic colonies use normalcy more often.
Which do you prefer?
They should get back to normality.
"Return to normalcy" was a campaign slogan used by Warren G. Harding during the 1920 United States presidential election.
(Wikipedia)
Perhaps that’s the origin of the word ‘Normalcy’ in the US? Not that the word is part of my everyday vocabulary, but I’m pretty sure I say ‘Normality.’
Normalcy just sounds plain wrong!
I'll grab ma coat...