So this is the stupidest but best thing ever
May 02, 2008 • 9:14 am
Today I replied to an email saying, “It was I who phoned you earlier in the week.”
Did you spot the best thing ever? No? Well I can’t say I’m surprised. You see, folks, I used the correct pronoun. I could have written “It was me who phoned”, which would have been more appropriate given the informality of emails in general, but I thought better of it and decided to be more grammatical. Besides, I liked the way it sounded dramatic. The email was about a completely trifling matter, but there’s no point being bland and well-balanced when you can ham something up to operatic levels.
It’s these small victories that help keep a linguistic man sane, you know.
One Comment
MQ wrote:
Mr Kenny,
may I take this opportunity to disagree with you entirely.
I have long held that the English use of the object pronoun in such phrases is not incorrect but in fact an attempt to match the emphatic pronoun used in French.
As you are no doubt aware, the French for this phrase would begin:
which uses the emphatic pronoun, and not the indirect object pronoun. No self-respecting French speaker would dream of uttering:
Of course, the copular verb ‘to be’ can take two (pro)nouns in the nominative, e.g.
However, I contend that when English speakers say
and suchlike, they are not displaying ignorance but in fact making a sophisticated nod to our French grammatical roots.
So there. :P
May 05, 2008 • 12:04 am
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