Country Grammar

I've been watching my slew of bad television over the past few weeks and listening to podcasts on my ipod at work and I've come to notice something that DRIVES. ME. CRAZY: incorrect usage of pronouns.  Yeah, I just nerded out on you.  Actually, this is something that my former English teacher of a mother first alerted me to and since she did, I can't stop hearing it everywhere.  It is like nails on a chalk board to me and I have to agree with Mom that it makes an otherwise smart person sound so dumb.  Worse, it starts to sound correct, which leads to the dumbing down of America and that causes Oprah to have whole shows devoted to the state of the public school system, which causes my teacher friends to get all up in arms and the cycle just continues from there. 

Examples of what I'm talking about: "Him and I are going to the movie."  Or try, "Kate had dinner with L and I."  OMG.  Stop using objective pronouns in the subject of a sentence and stop using subjective pronouns in the object of the sentence!!  With that, I share a lesson with whomever it is that reads this blog that my mother shared with me years and years ago:  read or say the sentence with both pronouns individually, and know that it's okay to change the verb to match a singular subject if need be.  Examples based on the sentences above:  Him is going to the movie (uh, no); I am going to the movie (thumbs up).  Kate had dinner with L (hope it was good); Kate had dinner with I (idiot). The lesson here is that IF IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE ON ITS OWN, IT'S NOT RIGHT AND IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY MORE SENSE WHEN YOU ADD THE ADDITIONAL PERSON IN THE SENTENCE.  And just because lots of people say it incorrectly does NOT make it right.  It's no different than using the apostrophes on plural words (horrid) or mixing up spellings of words (your vs. you're, their vs. there, etc.).  So take my mom's little tip and learn it, use it, love it. 

Oh and you're welcome.

And now I'm off my soap box.


On a completely unrelated topic, after walking into a bathroom stall tonight and interrupting a half-naked (from the waist up) 4-ish year old child while she was crawling from one stall to another, I have decided that I believe that children should not be allowed to use public restrooms by themselves unless they are of elementary school age.  A mother shouldn't have to come in to the restroom to check on her kids.  If your child can't reach the faucet handles on the sink without help, they need a parental escort.  That way the restaurant and fellow patrons don't have to deal with the bathroom stalls getting locked from the inside out while they aren't occupied. 

Just saying.