Re: Schadenfreude


"Self-hating Troll" <sht@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:me4ocaaf07y0.4s1pkm0u8bwq$.dlg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:32:01 +0100, Cry Havoc wrote:

Well that is the way I would say it. (the verb at the end left
unexpressed)
Maybe it's old fashioned but lots of people do not repeat the same verb
needlessly. Of course when we do, it forces us to use the right form of
the
word after *than*. We could not then pretend it was a preposition even in
informal speech.


This has nothing to do with the usage of "than."


it certainly has.


You've summed it all up right there. It's whether you need a subject
pronoun or object pronoun.

Take this quiz and all will be clear:


It is very clear to me and has been since I was 12 years old.

Just to reiterate part of my earlier post .....

" In sentences such as he does it far better than I, "than" is usually
regarded in careful usage as a conjunction governing an unexpressed verb: he
does it far better than I (do it). The case of any pronoun therefore
de­pends on whether it is the subject or the object of that unexpressed
verb: she likes him more than I (like him); she likes him more than (she
likes) me. However, in in­formal usage "than" is often treated as a
preposition and any pronoun is therefore used in its objective form, so that
she likes him more than me is ambiguous."

The thing is, in spite of my knowing most of the rules of grammar, and I
can (but don't always) write using those rules, I tend to ignore a lot of
them when I speak. The reason is that I speak with a Durham dialect and I
don't want to sound out of kilter with my peers. I don't think I could talk
grammatically correctly even if I wanted to. People round here can generally
get my drift, (so can my dog) and that is , to me, the important bit.
Mal


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: [OT] Indian C programmers and "u"
    ... grew up in Hadleigh, Essex, England or have a reference to English usage ... --- verb, transitive ... not a way of phrasing things I have heard from native English ... non-native speakers from affecting my response. ...
    (comp.lang.c)
  • Re: Rant: American singular+plural mistakes
    ... The inconsistency of the empty subject is one of the most common usage ... or notionally singular or plural. ... In a sentence introduced by there + part of the verb to be, ... agrees in number with the noun, noun phrase, or pronoun which ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: Any iMac rumors?
    ... Give me an example of a collective noun that has a plural ... verb in a sentence, according to American usage. ... How you blithely ignore the part that says, "The American system is ...
    (comp.sys.mac.system)
  • Re: Polling alt.fashion members
    ... "impact" can be used as a transitive verb. ... The striking of one body against another; collision. ... Usage Problem. ...
    (alt.fashion)
  • Re: Now =thats= writing: Ebert on JOHNNY MNEMONIC
    ... younger younger guy is in Alaska building trails in the national parks ... the use of gift as a verb in Modern English is tainted ... Usage Panel rejected the usage in an earlier survey. ...
    (misc.writing)
Loading