Get it correct
Last week we looked at the differences between the subject and the object cases of the personal pronouns and how they are used.
We said the subject cases of the personal pronouns are I, we, he, she and they, while the object cases are me, us, him, her and them.
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We said the pronouns in the subject case are used to perform actions, as in:
I did the work.
We did the work.
They did the work.
She did the work.
While the pronouns in the object case are used to receive action, as in:
The man slapped me.
The man slapped them.
The man slapped us.
The man slapped him.
But note that the use of the personal pronouns goes beyond performing or receiving action, since there are instances when the pronouns do not perform or receive action.
Look at the following sentences:
The boy is taller than me.
Esi is cleverer than us.
Now we know that the girl is smarter than him.
Between the couple, he is more generous than her.
Usain Bolt runs faster than them.
Grammatically speaking, all these sentences are incorrect because the forms of the pronouns used are incorrect.
Many people form sentences like those above and do not see anything incorrect with them.
But get to know that in English, whenever you use the comparative form of adjectives with the word than, the pronoun to be used is determined by writing or saying the sentence in full.
For instance, the complete form of the sentence The boy is taller than me is:
The boy is taller than I am tall.
When we write the sentence in full, we use the subject case of the pronoun, I, not the object case, me.
So if we want to end the sentence after the pronoun, we must use the subject case of the pronoun, I, as in:
The boy is taller than I.
The correct forms of the other incorrect sentences are:
Esi is cleverer than we (are clever).
Now we know that the girl is smarter than he (is smart).
Between the couple, he is more generous than she (is generous).
Usain Bolt runs faster than they (run).
(To be continued.)