Thursday, August 2, 2007

WORD PURISM

WORDS/PHRASES I LOATHE

This new section is a conduit to air my distaste for trite, repetitive and stupid word and phrase usage that is all too common. Most are noise used by speakers who cannot deal with silence.

First on the list is, "... you know... you know... you know...". You can fill in the blanks between the inanities.

What word or phrase could you add to the list? Click on "Comment" at the end of this entry and make a contribution.

A COMMON ERROR

"Between you and I" is often heard.

What is wrong with that phrase? Why? What is the correction?


WORDS I LIKE

Today's word is "revulsion".
Define the word and try to use it in conversation today.
Posted by at

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Between you and I" should be "between you and me". "Between" is a preposition. Any pronouns that come after a preposition must be in the "object pronoun" form such as me, him, her, us, them. "I" is a subject pronoun and indicates the doer of an action, which is usually specified earlier in the sentence, but I digress. Subject pronouns cannot follow prepositions.
The tendency to say the incorrect "between you and I" is likely a consequence of one's incomplete schooling in the elementary years. I learned that one must always say the names of other people first, then say "I" at the end of the list of people, for example, "Jennifer and I are going...", "Dave, Sam and I ate...", etc. We were taught never to say, "Me and Jennifer are going...", or "Me, Dave and Sam ate...", etc, as these are grammatical crimes. As a result, people have been conditioned to equate "you and me" with incorrect and impolite speech, and to equate "you and I" with the correct, educated and refined form of speech.
"Between you and I" is therefore a conscious but failed attempt to use correct grammar.

How's that?
BJ

August 2, 2007 at 7:33 PM
Anonymous said...

"Between you and me".
I don't know the reason why.

August 3, 2007 at 6:11 AM
Anonymous said...

BJ, stop kissing butt with your long comments.

August 5, 2007 at 12:39 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)