Common Grammatical Errors Between You and Me

Common Grammatical Errors Between You and Me Let’s start with a pop quiz: Is there a grammar mistake in the title of my blog? If you answered â€Å"Yes† and believe that â€Å"Between You and I† would be correct, you have a lot of company. However, â€Å"Between You and Me† is actually the correct structure. Why do so many of us say â€Å"Between you and I†? My guess is that at some point, maybe around age 8, you may have said to your mother something like, â€Å"Jimmy and me are going to the store.† She corrected you: â€Å"It’s ‘Jimmy and I’† and something clicked in your head, and you thought that if you’re talking about yourself and another person, you should always say â€Å"I† instead of â€Å"me.† I’m here to set the record straight. There are pronouns that belong as the subject of a sentence. They are: I, you, she, he, we, you, they, it. Then there are pronouns that belong as the object of a sentence. They are: me, you, her, him, us, you, them, it. The first thing you need to know is not to mix these two groups together! â€Å"Him and I† for instance takes one pronoun from the object group and one from the subject group. Mixing and matching is always incorrect no matter where in the sentence the pronouns fall. â€Å"Between you and me† is a little trickier because our language uses â€Å"you† as both subject and object. Which group are we in here? Think about it: Would you say â€Å"Between us† or â€Å"Between we†? Of course you would say Between us. Now you know you’re in the object group which includes both â€Å"us† and (would you believe it?) â€Å"me.† A nice easy way to determine what pronouns to use, when you want to include two subjects or objects, is to try out the sentence with just one of the subjects or objects and see how it sounds. For example: â€Å"I [not me] went to the store.† â€Å"He [not him] went to the store. Therefore, â€Å"He and I went to the store.† Notice â€Å"he† and â€Å"I† are in the group with â€Å"we.† â€Å"We went to the store† is of course also correct. Another example: â€Å"Dave went to the store with him [not he].† â€Å"Dave went to the store with me [not I].† Therefore, â€Å"Dave went to the store with him and me† is correct. I realize for some of you that last sentence might sound completely wrong and ungrammatical. Between you and me, I think it’s time to change that perception. There’s a little quiz you can take at UsingEnglish.com: Quiz: Subject and Object Pronouns.   For more on this topic, see the article The English Personal Pronoun System. 🙂 Log in to Reply

3 Problems with In-Line Lists

3 Problems with In-Line Lists 3 Problems with In-Line Lists 3 Problems with In-Line Lists By Mark Nichol An in-line list, one located within a sentence rather than formatted vertically below an explanatory phrase, sentence, or paragraph, may present an obstacle to comprehension in the following ways. Each sentence represents a different type of error, and the discussion that follows each statement explains the problem and a revision resolves it. 1. Organizations must notify affected individuals of a data breach when a reasonable person would conclude that the unauthorized access to, disclosure or loss of the information would be likely to result in serious harm to the individual or individuals.   In this sentence, there should be three distinct phrases consisting of a noun followed by a preposition, but disclosure is bereft of the latter; either allow it to share one, or give it its own: â€Å"Organizations must notify affected individuals of a data breach when a reasonable person would conclude that the unauthorized access to or disclosure or loss of the information would be likely to result in serious harm to the individual or individuals†Ã‚  or â€Å"Organizations must notify affected individuals of a data breach when a reasonable person would conclude that the unauthorized access to, disclosure of, or loss of the information would be likely to result in serious harm to the individual or individuals.†Ã‚   2. Typically, the best companies: are customer-focused; understand their value proposition; develop powerful and distinctive messaging; and listen well and act to improve their processes, products, and customer experience continuously. No colon or other punctuation mark is necessarily to signal that an in-line list follows the subject of the sentence; it is redundant to the verb(s) it precedes: â€Å"Typically, the best companies are customer-focused; understand their value proposition; develop powerful and distinctive messaging; and listen well and act to improve their processes, products, and customer experience continuously.† This is true as well for vertical lists, unless the introductory wording constitutes an independent clause- compare â€Å"Typically, the best companies [vertical list follows]† and â€Å"Typically, the best companies demonstrate the following qualities: [vertical list follows].† Note, too, that with the latter format, the list items would have to be revised to be complete sentences or to not begin with a verb. 3. Its long list of supporters includes Kobe Bryant, swimmer Janet Evans, Venus and Serena Williams and other sports royalty. When the style a publication adheres to calls for omitting the serial comma in simple lists (â€Å"a, b and c†), the serial comma must still be employed on occasion to clarify organization when a compound list item occurs: â€Å"Its long list of supporters includes Kobe Bryant, swimmer Janet Evans, Venus and Serena Williams, and other sports royalty.† (This rule applies for list forms â€Å"a and b, c, and d,† â€Å"a, b and c, and d,† or â€Å"a, b, and c and d,† as well as â€Å"a and b, c and d, and e† and so on.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Writing a Reference Letter (With Examples)16 Misquoted QuotationsKn- Words in English