Funny Pic Thread VII - No swearing. No sex. No complaining. (READ FIRST POST)
- Thread starter Max Powers
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** speaking better English than we **
Kidding!!! Kidding!!!! Technically and strictly speaking, this is correct (as in "... speaking better English than we do,") but in common everyday usage, either is acceptable. As long as everyone around you is just as much an ignorant slob.
Don't want to start a fight!
Kidding!!! Kidding!!!! Technically and strictly speaking, this is correct (as in "... speaking better English than we do,") but in common everyday usage, either is acceptable. As long as everyone around you is just as much an ignorant slob.
Don't want to start a fight!
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It's not the object of the verb. It's two phrases, they speak better than we, and they're both subjects, and the verb after we is implied. Not actually saying the verb doesn't change the we to us.
(Says the guy who didn't want to start anything...)
(Says the guy who didn't want to start anything...)
UKMikey
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I thought it was one phrase and that speaking was the verb. Who are they speaking better than? Us. Expecting us (we?) to refer to verbs which aren't in the sentence is a bit of a stretch to me. "Better than we" just sounds weird to me (not I). It may or may not be grammatically correct but I think it risks turning people off (just as this conversation is no doubt turning a lot of people off). This discussion agrees with me:
forum.wordreference.com
And so does this dictionary site which says it's about whether "than" can only be a conjunction or can also be a preposition: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/than-what-follows-it-and-why
If they and I are all wrong though, it just proves the point of the cartoon about British English speakers like me not knowing our own language. But I don't think "us" is incorrect even if it's less correct to some people. It's just the way people speak.
They are better than us / we are
A) They are better than us B) They are better than we are Are they both correct? I read it somewhere that "than us" is wrong.
If they and I are all wrong though, it just proves the point of the cartoon about British English speakers like me not knowing our own language. But I don't think "us" is incorrect even if it's less correct to some people. It's just the way people speak.
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