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Wednesday, August 24, 2016

"Sam taught Emily and I how to make tortillas"

I saw someone I respect on a social media site use this construction... [cringe] Of course this is the error of the well-educated person for whom "Emily and me" sounds like a mistake even when it is the object of the verb, not the subject. So much the worse.

Of course I would never be so rude as to point out this mistake to the person making it. But be warned: I will judge you for this even if I don't say anything.

3 comments:

Andrew Shields said...

The issue is whether the preposition determines the case of the pronoun or whether the coordinator does. The standard textbooks say that the preposition always does; analysis of real usage shows that often the coordination determines the case as a fixed form.

Jonathan said...

Where is the preposition here, though? I'm not seeing one.

Andrew Shields said...

Sorry, brain addled by jetlag insomnia. I should have written "verb" instead of "preposition"!