A grammatical question for you
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I did a search on the web and here were what I found,
AskOxford.com, Which is correct: 'my friend and me' or 'my friend and I'?
Grammar Mishaps: I vs. Me
AskOxford.com, Which is correct: 'my friend and me' or 'my friend and I'?
Grammar Mishaps: I vs. Me
Pablo
Senior Member
My wife and I AM..."
Hi seanlim,
I don't think "Am" is correct.
It is more a personal (singular person) use of the word.
Such as .... I am going to, or I am thinking of going.
Where as ... My wife am going to, or we am going to. is incorrect.
In some circumstances, "am" is quite close to "are"... but not in this situation.
Please note: I am very gratefull for all the interest and suggestions for what I thought was a menial question.
I thank you all
Pablo
Senior Member
Hi harmony,
English is a tricky language even for the English speaking people :bsmilie:
Due to my schooling and also from my parents (Both born in England), I have only the remaining part......
If it doesn't sound right, I take it apart and work from there.
Such as ....
My friend and I is going to see a concert.
Take it apart and you get ....
My friend is going to see a concert (correct) ..... I is going to see a concert (incorrect).
Now the hard part ( for me ) is .... My friend and I are going to see a concert.
This is what I believe to be the correct way...but....take it apart and it is wrong.
I think that my teacher didn't explain everything :bsmilie: ... My parents ?? well their cool anyway :bsmilie:
Why do you need to break "X and Y are..." into "X are" and "Y are"?
When it is "X and Y", it means there are two which means plural, therefore the verb form must also be plural i.e. 'are'.
When it is only 1 person, the verb form is singular i.e. 'is' or 'am'
Anyway, your example of " My friend and I is going to see a concert" is wrong.
It should be "My friend and I are going to see a concert."
Grammar looks at the subject of the sentence to determine whether the verb is plural or singular. In the example above, the subject is "My friend and I", which is plural which means the verb form must be plural.
Of course, it can get more complicated with more complex sentences.
When it is "X and Y", it means there are two which means plural, therefore the verb form must also be plural i.e. 'are'.
When it is only 1 person, the verb form is singular i.e. 'is' or 'am'
Anyway, your example of " My friend and I is going to see a concert" is wrong.
It should be "My friend and I are going to see a concert."
Grammar looks at the subject of the sentence to determine whether the verb is plural or singular. In the example above, the subject is "My friend and I", which is plural which means the verb form must be plural.
Of course, it can get more complicated with more complex sentences.
Pablo
Senior Member
Pablo
Senior Member
err... not sure if I'm correct but I remembered I was taught, "My wife and I am considering...". We should look at the latter, which is "I" in this case.
Hi pigcess,
I can see what you mean (also seanlim), but if you take out the "I" you are left with, "My wife am".
A tricky one; where is my high school teacher when I need her .... Oh, that's right, about 20 years ago :bsmilie:
Cheers
Hi pigcess,
I can see what you mean (also seanlim), but if you take out the "I" you are left with, "My wife am".
A tricky one; where is my high school teacher when I need her .... Oh, that's right, about 20 years ago :bsmilie:
Cheers
hahahaha....
but back to what you have posted, if you take out the "I", it will be "My wife is...". Isn't it so?
Anyway, I just did a check using Microsoft Word, it should be "My wife and I are considering..."!
I'm quite sure that where the verb "to be" is concerned, it only sees the subject of the sentence as a single unit. The subject here is "my wife and I", which is a plural subject, so it will take the form "are".
Where TS talks about the splitting of the group subject into individual separate subjects ("my wife" and "I"), I think this is only important for determining the form of the subjects in question (usually pronouns, is that what they're called?). Since you would say "My wife is considering" and "I am considering", the combined form will be "My wife and I - are - considering". Since you don't say "Me is/am considering", "My wife and me are considering" will be wrong. Similarly, you don't say "Me is going" or "Her is going", so "Her and me are going" is wrong, while the correct form is "She and I are going". This splitting of the subjects issue shouldn't affect the form of the verb, I think.
English is a pain. We should all stick to Chinese, then there won't be any tenses, and much less grammar to worry about. But then learning to write will be such a chore.... :sweat:
Where TS talks about the splitting of the group subject into individual separate subjects ("my wife" and "I"), I think this is only important for determining the form of the subjects in question (usually pronouns, is that what they're called?). Since you would say "My wife is considering" and "I am considering", the combined form will be "My wife and I - are - considering". Since you don't say "Me is/am considering", "My wife and me are considering" will be wrong. Similarly, you don't say "Me is going" or "Her is going", so "Her and me are going" is wrong, while the correct form is "She and I are going". This splitting of the subjects issue shouldn't affect the form of the verb, I think.
English is a pain. We should all stick to Chinese, then there won't be any tenses, and much less grammar to worry about.
But then learning to write will be such a chore.... :sweat:
Yappy
Senior Member
I'm quite sure that where the verb "to be" is concerned, it only sees the subject of the sentence as a single unit. The subject here is "my wife and I", which is a plural subject, so it will take the form "are".
Where TS talks about the splitting of the group subject into individual separate subjects ("my wife" and "I"), I think this is only important for determining the form of the subjects in question (usually pronouns, is that what they're called?). Since you would say "My wife is considering" and "I am considering", the combined form will be "My wife and I - are - considering". Since you don't say "Me is/am considering", "My wife and me are considering" will be wrong. Similarly, you don't say "Me is going" or "Her is going", so "Her and me are going" is wrong, while the correct form is "She and I are going". This splitting of the subjects issue shouldn't affect the form of the verb, I think.
English is a pain. We should all stick to Chinese, then there won't be any tenses, and much less grammar to worry about.
English language is an ambiguous language.
'The king and I....' and not 'I and the King..' We give due respect to the other person and put them before us. And as there are 2 of us, we should use 'are' .. The king and I are ....... my 2 c w of contribution
Yappy & happy
Pablo
Senior Member
Hello everbody,
I am thrilled that so many good people have taken an interest in my question and given good views.
In the end I think that,"My wife and I are" seems to be the answer.
Thank you Gengh for your explanation.
Thank you all for your contributions.
May we all have another such discussion again sometime.
Cheers to you all
I am thrilled that so many good people have taken an interest in my question and given good views.
In the end I think that,"My wife and I are" seems to be the answer.
Thank you Gengh for your explanation.
Thank you all for your contributions.
May we all have another such discussion again sometime.
Cheers to you all
Firstly, let me state that I am not having a go at the originator of the thread this comes from.
I was reading a post that started with,"Me and my wife are considering".
I thought,"should that not be (My wife and I)" ?
I then broke it down to:-
1) My wife are considering. 2) I are considering........both wrong !
But, Me are considering is not right either.
Frankly, I can't think of a short way of putting it correctly (grammaticly).
Any suggestions :think:
Again, I am not pointing at the person that wrote it. It simply has me thinking and hope it is seen as such.
Cheers
usually when people put 'i and XXX', sorry to say this but it could be he or she is more self focused :bsmilie: and that is. 'i' come 1st, always 'me me me'.
back to question.
sounds like 'my wife and i' or 'we' ? :dunno:
Perhaps we should consider the classic "Subject - Verb - Object" sentence structure - the basic building block of the English language (and also Mandarin).
For example, consider the sentence: "My wife and I are considering selling our camera"
Subject = 'My wife and I' - In this sentance 'my wife' is not a seperate subject from 'I'. Together they are the one subject of the sentence. So breaking them into seperate sentences and treating them as seperate objects will always lead to an ungramatical outcome. A sentence will always have one subject and it will be either singular or plural. If there is more than one item in the subject then the plural verb 'are' must apply. Individually it would be ''My wife is selling' and 'I am selling', as the pronoun 'I' requires 'am', not 'is'. Also the tense, 'am' and 'are' versus 'were' depends entirely upon the context. Is it happening now or in the past?
Verb = 'are considering selling' - used in the present tense as the action is happening now. If it was in the past then it would be 'were'.
Object = 'our camera' - in this sentence 'our' is an adjective used to convery ownership of the camera.
So going back to the original post, it is incorrect to try and break the subject of the sentence up into its constituent parts. To do so leads to the gramatical problems that have have been highlighted. Take the subject as 'my wife and I' and the sentence is correct, not two seperate subjects - 1)'my wife' and 2) 'I'.
So why 'My wife and I' and not 'I, and my wife'? This is just being polite and has become common usage. Traditionally if you (personally) are one of the elements of the subject of a sentence you recognise the other element first. So it is "My freind and I", not "Me and my friend".
Hope this helps
For example, consider the sentence: "My wife and I are considering selling our camera"
Subject = 'My wife and I' - In this sentance 'my wife' is not a seperate subject from 'I'. Together they are the one subject of the sentence. So breaking them into seperate sentences and treating them as seperate objects will always lead to an ungramatical outcome. A sentence will always have one subject and it will be either singular or plural. If there is more than one item in the subject then the plural verb 'are' must apply. Individually it would be ''My wife is selling' and 'I am selling', as the pronoun 'I' requires 'am', not 'is'. Also the tense, 'am' and 'are' versus 'were' depends entirely upon the context. Is it happening now or in the past?
Verb = 'are considering selling' - used in the present tense as the action is happening now. If it was in the past then it would be 'were'.
Object = 'our camera' - in this sentence 'our' is an adjective used to convery ownership of the camera.
So going back to the original post, it is incorrect to try and break the subject of the sentence up into its constituent parts. To do so leads to the gramatical problems that have have been highlighted. Take the subject as 'my wife and I' and the sentence is correct, not two seperate subjects - 1)'my wife' and 2) 'I'.
So why 'My wife and I' and not 'I, and my wife'? This is just being polite and has become common usage. Traditionally if you (personally) are one of the elements of the subject of a sentence you recognise the other element first. So it is "My freind and I", not "Me and my friend".
Hope this helps
Hi seanlim,
I don't think "Am" is correct.
It is more a personal (singular person) use of the word.
Such as .... I am going to, or I am thinking of going.
Where as ... My wife am going to, or we am going to. is incorrect.
In some circumstances, "am" is quite close to "are"... but not in this situation.
Please note: I am very gratefull for all the interest and suggestions for what I thought was a menial question.
I thank you all
:sweat: i think ARE is correct..AM is cus earlier, i was teaching my sis english and a similiar qn came out.
Neither you nor I (AM) competent enough for the job... so i thought got I = am...
Are sounds right tho
contaxable
New Member
Wow, learning English is fun...
ok. for those who are good in English, can you help me out here as well?
Do you say,
"Any questions from the class?"
OR
"Any question from the class?"
Should not the word placed after "any" be singular?
I heard this phrase from young and I once challenged an arrogant English teacher in Canada. He replied indicating he did not know the correct answer!
Not a flame bait, but seriously, I heard this phrase whenever I attended a class.
Thanks!
ok. for those who are good in English, can you help me out here as well?
Do you say,
"Any questions from the class?"
OR
"Any question from the class?"
Should not the word placed after "any" be singular?
I heard this phrase from young and I once challenged an arrogant English teacher in Canada. He replied indicating he did not know the correct answer!
Not a flame bait, but seriously, I heard this phrase whenever I attended a class.
Thanks!
The sentence itself is not complete.
The complete sentence should be "Are there any questions from the class?".
I don't think "Is there any question from the class?" is valid because 'any' is used as a determiner (a word that comes before a noun, i.e. a, the) for indefinite quantity or numbers. So actually, 'any' can't be used for a singular noun. If it's a singular noun then 'a/an' will be used
The complete sentence should be "Are there any questions from the class?".
I don't think "Is there any question from the class?" is valid because 'any' is used as a determiner (a word that comes before a noun, i.e. a, the) for indefinite quantity or numbers. So actually, 'any' can't be used for a singular noun. If it's a singular noun then 'a/an' will be used
contaxable
New Member
Good answer! Perhaps this would be one way to solve the puzzle. Sometimes, I hear people at seminar asking, "does anyone has any questions to ask?" There are many versions of the same, but all revolving around the same logic.
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