Friday, April 06, 2012

ESL ASAP

Lessens four morons ware all is knot a zit may seem. A MODEST observation on  GRAMMAR. Personal pronouns are little words which refer to persons, aka, people, like you and me, if you will forgive my presumption. Their proper and appropriate usage is described in most books purporting to teach the English language.  Go read one if you don't believe me, or perhaps even if you do, just to keep a sharp edge on the sword. ¶ ( That's a paragraph sign, indicating that a new line of thought is about to be introduced, if you're lucky. ) Pronouns are such delicate creatures! They are sensitive to context and insist on reflecting their environment, which latter is usually a phrase, clause, or sentence. When preceded by a verb or a preposition they known as OBJECTIVE pronouns, having become the OBJECT of said verb or preposition. In such contexts they are spelled this way: me, you, him, her, and them. They are NEVER spelled "myself". That word is a REFLEXIVE  pronoun and lives in an environment unlike the objective one.  It always refers back to the personal pronoun in the environment's SUBJECT, normally a group of words containing the "I" word which is the phrase's main actor, or one of them. To use the "myself" word as an object is to make a mistake or, in other words, to SPEAK UNGRAMMATICALLY. It's a reflexive personal pronoun. "Me" is the objective personal pronoun. When speaking of oneself one may use both me and myself, but NOT interchangeably, as, it is my sad duty to report, many people and persons do. Take, for example, a radio host who says, "John took Jane and myself to the news briefing." "Me" would have been the correct word.  ¶ What is worse, but not common to radio hosts, one often hears "John took she and I to the briefing." This gets us off the topic at hand (myself), but it must be addressed as a common error: her and me are the correct pronouns in the preceding remark, made, perhaps, by an apprentice in the newsroom, but nonetheless unforgivable. ¶ When speaking ungrammatically you are shooting yourself in the foot and would describe the occasion thusly: "I shot myself in the foot." "John shot she and myself ( or I ) in the foot" would be wrong. Her and me would be correct, in that order. ¶ Another group of pronouns, the possessive ones, are less easily misused so we won't bother mentioning them. The writer Bill Bryson has three of four books that review all of this in a most amusing and more comprehensive way.

2 comments:

j. doloris said...

well i'll be! this gotta be the DENSEST learnin book me, myself, e're took to porin on. but like them nuns always said, it'll get in eventually if yer ta jus keep shovin it down thur throat!

Jim Mall said...

It is my pleasure to serve in this noble cause. Go thou, and sin no more.