By Pronouns, Conversations

The so-called object pronouns are actually acceptable in the "predicate nominative" position according to many modern grammarians. Some say that it has been only the tendency of English grammarians throughout the centuries to create rules for English in imitation Latin grammar that has led...

"A Practical English Grammar" by Thomson and Martinet: As everyone/everybody takes a singular verb, the pronoun should be he/him, she/her with possessive adjectives his and her. But this is only found in formal English. In ordinary conversation the plural forms they/them and their are used...

The only context I can think of for this construction is something like this: "The museum is closed. The ceiling is being painted." "The ceiling has been 'being painted' for six weeks now. How long is it going to take??!!" It's a very awkward construction, and would only be used in a very...

In modern English, 'who' works as both a subject and an object. ++++++++++++++++ http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1994_01_24_thenewrepublic.html The first story was a nonpartisan analysis of supposed pronoun case errors made by the two candidates in the 1992 US presidential ...

Just because we have object him/them does not mean that "the corresponding interrogative or relative pronoun", must be used. True. So true, particularly because of the "must". But in the context of a student question implicitly asking "What's all the fuss about 'who' and 'whom'?" I believe...

Since the statement form is "I told the news to him." or "I told the news to them" also tell us to always use in object position. A prescriptive grammar can be abused by those who insist on outdated conventions ... . ------------------- Note that in everyday conversation, you are not ever...

"He's the one I told the news to" or "He's the one I told" is the more idiomatic formulation. Since the statement form is "I told the news to him." or "I told the news to them" , the corresponding interrogative or relative pronoun also has the m: It's he to whom I told the news. It's he whom I...

Hello Andrei and Casi I hope you don’t mind if I answer both of you at the same time. First, to Andrei: Casi has quite rightly mentioned an oversight in my previous answer. The forms of which these are examples are often found, especially in conversation: 1. ‘Peter was searched for by...

Calif Jim I used past tense in the 'posing' example because I was imagining a press article describing the event. When we say "Manchester United are (or is) posing for photos", we are doing so in the belief that the listener or reader will infer we mean the players - or at least those players...

Hello everyone, I'm a non-native English speaker currently residing in an English speaking country. During everyday's conversations I recently encountered the problem of not knowing when to use "somebody" or "someone". I guess the same goes for "everybody" and "everyone" and all those other...