To improve your speaking and presentation skills you may need to adopt a Grammar Granny.

Mine has taught me A Horse Is a Horse, But He Isn't!

On TV, curvy film star Jane Russell praised Playtex bras, designed "for we full-figured gals." On stage, the gold-digging heroine of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes coos, "Men adore a girl like I."

Both ladies are trying to be super-correct while failing to understand the difference between a subject (actor) and object (acted upon). Ms. Russell, or, more accurately, the scriptwriters, might not have erred if they had temporarily removed the extras and decided which of these two options was correct:

1. Playtex bras for we.

2. Playtex bras for us.

I hope you chose number 2.) How often do you hear people say things like:

The owner promoted him and I. ("The owner promoted I"?)

The client took Sally and he to lunch. ("The client took he to lunch"?)

That's very important to we commuters. ("That's very important to we"?)

Hopefully, these examples just don't sound right. In English, a noun stays the same, whether it is the actor (subject) or the receiver of the action (object). A horse is a horse is a horse, of course:

The horse loved the cowboy.

The cowboy loved the horse.

However, the whole game changes when you switch to PROnouns, those abbreviated words indicating the nouns under discussion. "Him" (object) becomes "He" (subject).

The horse loved him.

He loved the horse.

Here are how the basic pronouns change when they play different roles in a sentence. Note that "you" and "it" stay the same, however you use them.

Pronoun Same Pronoun

Used as Subject Used as Object

I me

he him

she her

we us

you you

they them

it it

For some reason, people who aren't sure which to use can end up overcorrecting. "I" and "he" sound more elegant, so these people come up with sentences like the first three examples above.

Quick trick:

The most confusion seems to arise when there are two things receiving the action. The simplest thing is to eliminate the one that isn't a pronoun to see if the sentence "sounds right."

WRONG: The owner promoted him and I. ("The owner promoted I"?!)

RIGHT: The owner promoted him and me.

WRONG: The client took Sally and he to lunch. ("The client took he to lunch"?!)

RIGHT: The client took Sally and him to lunch.

WRONG: That's very important to we commuters. ("That's very important to we"?!)

RIGHT: That's very important to us commuters.

Ancient Latin, grandparent to English, has lots of noun "cases" that tell the listener exactly what each noun is doing. Every Latin noun is a root word that requires an extender (suffix) to tell you its function. Happily, these cases have largely dropped from modern English, leaving only the workhorse pronoun to carry on the legacy.

Your listeners will forgive occasional errors when you speak—we all start a sentence heading in one direction and then loop back as thoughts occur to us, but be careful when you write. Just be sure your pronouns are all properly declined and inflected and subjected and objected so you don't sound like that screwball blonde who preferred gentlemen with diamonds.

Want to get to the top of the corporate ladder? Watch your grammar!