1. Debbie and I talk frequently about English grammar. We've both studied language (and languages) a lot over the years and both of us have taught grammar. Debbie taught a lot of French and I taught English.
A tiny bit of background. When a pronoun is in the subject slot in a sentence, it's called the subjective case. Examples of subjective pronouns are I, we, he, she, who, and they. Pronouns that are objects, often objects of prepositions, are in the objective case. Examples include me, us, her, him, whom, and them.
Debbie and I keep this light, but we often hear (or read) people confuse the use of pronouns. It's common to hear object pronouns put in the subject slot. For example "Me and Albert went to the lake today" instead of "Albert and I went to the lake" or "Lynn and her went to Coeur d'Alene shopping instead of "Lynn and she went to Coeur d'Alene shopping."
The misuse of subject pronouns goes something like this: Jack and Jill invited Sharon, Dawn, and I to dinner. The names after "invited", though, are in the object slot, so the "I" should be "me".
Again, it's no big deal, but I don't think Debbie and I are alone in feeling happy when we read or hear language used properly and we can't help but feel a something like a bee sting when it's not.
It's akin to hearing a piano or guitar played out of tune.
Well, today, Debbie read my Sunday blog post and began to tease me.
My grammar guitar was out of tune.
I made an error.
I had written the following: "Not too long ago, I posted a picture of Don, Cliff, Dick, and I taken several years ago at 16 Tons on a Thursday afternoon."
Debbie spotted my error. I'd missed it. (I hope you see it.)
Let me confess it: I used "I", a subject pronoun, in the object slot. The names that follow "of" are objects of that preposition. I should have written, "I posted a picture of Don, Cliff, Dick, and me".
I blushed with embarrassment.
I corrected my error on my blog, but I couldn't correct it in the email version of the post I had sent out.
So, if you received my blog post via email and noted my error, please know that, thanks to Debbie, I corrected it where I could.
I can hardly be judgmental about these errors, can I? To quote King Lear, "I am not ague-proof!" I'm not error-proof!
In fact, I wonder if, over time, it might become acceptable to the gatekeepers of proper English to simply make subjective and objective pronouns interchangeable.
If changes in what's proper/correct in our language change according to how people, in general, use the language, I could sure see this change coming.
I also wonder if, at some point, the gatekeepers of proper English will just give up on people knowing the difference between "lie" and "lay" and on the difference between "every day" and "everyday".
In practice, it is very common for people to use "lay" instead of "lie" and to write "everyday" when it should be "every day" and my guess is that the distinctions between them are melting away.
I can live with that, but every time I hear a person say, "I'm going to lay down" instead of "lie down", I feel that little sting. I hear a person singing out of tune.
Here's why: "Lay" is a transitive verb. For example, we do lay bricks, but rarely do we take the stuffing, the down, out of a pillow and lay down! "Lie" is an intransitive verb. Lie never has a direct object following it. So when you take a nap or when your dog curls up beside you, you lie down and the dog lies down.
(This is all complicated by the past tense of "lie" which is "lay". The past tense of "lay" is "laid".)
"Every day", by the way, refers to things that happen frequently. I brush my teeth every day. "Everyday" is an adjective used to describe common things. Some stores have everyday low prices. In fact, some offer everyday low prices all the time, like every day.
Ha! That was fun trying to help tune our grammar pianos.
2. Cousin Lura and her husband Lyle came up from Orofino to watch the matinee show at the Sixth Street Melodrama. At around 5 o'clock, Debbie and I picked up pizzas from Yoke's. Debbie had made a delicious cabbage salad. Before long, we all dug in and enjoyed a pizza party together at Carol and Paul's.
Conversation bounced all over the place with some special emphasis on family history going back into the 19th century, maybe earlier, and current family updates as well.
3. Carol, Christy, and I read "I'm From" poems we've written. I wrote mine back in 2008. Carol and Christy also read their poems from back then -- it was a Sibling Assignment. Christy read the "I'm From" poem that she composed for Everett, bringing to life much of his life history, and Carol read her updated version that she recently wrote as part of a creative living group she belongs to.
I liked that we read our poems aloud. I can't remember another time in the many years we've done things with people from the West/Baugh branches of our family tree when family members read their poetry -- maybe I've forgotten something, but this evening it felt fresh, relevant, and fun to read my poem and listen to Christy and Carol read theirs.
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