They,you and he are good students.(?)

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Viceidol

#502794 Sat, 19 Apr 08 11:24 PM

__are good students.

A) You ,he and they

B) He,they and you

C) They,you and he

D) They,he and you

May I ask which one should I use? Please help me with this. Thank you!

Viceidol

Joined on Wed, Jul 11 2007

Taiwan

Frequent Poster (489)

Clive

#502802 Sat, 19 Apr 08 11:59 PM

Hi,

All are grammatically OK.

It's your choice. Very generally speaking, the ones mentioned first get more emphasis.

Best wishes, Clive

Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004

Canada

Forum Guru (19,223)

El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo

Viceidol

#502818 Sun, 20 Apr 08 12:28 AM

Thank you, Clive. Actually the reason I ask this question is because when I read my grammar book, it says when we are trying to use multiple personal pronouns, we should follow a set order:

singular: You, he and I are classmates. (second person, third person, first person)

plural: We, you and they are tall. ( first person, second person, third person)

So when I read this I was wondering: What if we conbine the singular pronouns with plural ones? That's why I asked this question.

What do you think?

Viceidol

Grammar, Nouns, Plurals, Pronouns

Clive

#502820 Sun, 20 Apr 08 12:49 AM

Hi,

I'm not familiar with such a 'rule'.

There are some considerations about politeness, eg 'You and I' rather than 'I and you'. These are based on the fact I mentioned earlier, that the first mentioned generally receives more emphasis, more importance.

Best wishes, Clive

Clive

Viceidol

#502964 Sun, 20 Apr 08 01:01 PM

May I bother you with one last question about this? Stick out tongue

In "You, he and I are classmates.", the first person pronoun "I" is the last one to mention, but in "We, you and they are tall.", the first person pronoun "we" become the first one. If the word order is about politeness, why does the first person pronouns have different positions in the above examples? I'm sorry to keep asking questions about this, but I really think you had explained this far better than all my grammar books.

Thank you!

Viceidol

Grammar, Nouns, Pronouns, Word order

Clive

#502983 Sun, 20 Apr 08 02:18 PM

Hi,

Don't worry, you're not bothering me. Smile

Sometimes, and in some situations, a speaker does not care about politeness.

Let me ask you a question.

Can you think of a situation, ie a context, in which you would want to use a sentence that begins with 'We, you and they . . . . '?

Best wishes, Clive

Clive

Kooyeen

#503096 Sun, 20 Apr 08 10:01 PM

Hi,
they all sound bad to me. I don't think a native speaker is likely to say any of them. Is it just me? I'd say "You, him, and them are all good students".
Of course, if you had to write that on a test, you'd have to choose one of your options, because on tests, you know... err... they want you to do what they want. Wink

And by the way, some say you hate to say "You and I" because it's more polite to mention the others first. My opinion is that such a rule does not exist, and if someone invented it, it obviously doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Do you think it's polite to blame the others first? Well, you say "You and I are guilty" anyway. And native speakers say "You and I" even when they want to be rude, and are not likely to say "I and you" in any case. And I bet no native speaker would answer that they say "You" first because they want to be polite, if you asked them... on the other hand, if you asked them about "please" or "May I..." or "Could I", I think they would recognize the politeness.
So you put "You" first simply because "I and you" doesn't sound good, since it's pretty uncommon compared to the other version. Smile