PRONOUN CRASH COURSE – Part Two
COMMON ERROR #4 – The Predicate Nominative Pronoun
Sounds frightening. But it isn’t. In short, a sentence is divided into a subject and a predicate. In
“Bob walks all the time,” for instance, “Bob” is the subject and everything else is the predicate. If
the predicate is a noun that refers directly back to the subject, as in “Bob is a suspect in the crime”
or “Bob is a beacon of joy,” then you are using the predicate nominative (or, a noun in the
predicate that is the same thing as the subject). Now, we’ve already covered that the subject
pronoun is called the nominative, right? And if a pronoun in the predicate refers directly back to
the subject (the nominative), then you use the nominative case. Perhaps examples would help. If
you answer the phone and somebody asks to speak to you, you should say “This is he/she” (don’t
actually say “he/she,” choose the gender that applies to you) because the subject (“this”) and the
predicate pronoun are the same person. Don’t let the swelling tide of anti-intellectualism dissuade
you – master the predicate nominative. A few more examples: “The winner was she,” “It is I,
Cindy Feldman” “The people on the committee are the Drakes and we”. Remember, if you
reverse the order in a sentence like this, it still works (We are the people on the committee)
CIRCLE THE CORRECT PRONOUNS (not all of these are predicate nominatives):
1) It must have been (him / he)
2) The accident didn’t hurt (me / I )
3) The pilots were (we / us), Samuel and (she / her)
4) He was surprised that it was (her / she) who had taken his money.
5) The only people in line were (them / they)
Just for practice, circle whichever sentence has a predicate nominative
Dave is a monkey
Dave has a monkey
That actress is attractive
That actress is a dream come true
He wants to be a dentist
He is the best dentist
COMMON ERROR #5 – What goes after “than” or “as”?
Here’s a fast way of putting the correct pronoun after “than” or “as” … reinstate the missing
words from the sentence. For example: Which would be correct: “Mom loves food more than
we” or “Mom loves food more than us”? Trick question – both are right, but it depends on what
you mean. For instance, you could be saying “Mom loves food more than we love food” or
“Mom loves food more than she loves us”. If you lose the italicized words, you’re back to the
starting point. So let’s try the following – go for the more reasonable answer.
1) Nobody is better than (we / us)
2) Dave hates math – everybody likes the class more than (he / him)
3) My parents say that they love my brother as much as (I / me) but I think they like him more.
4) The Eagles had to admit that the Falcons were simply a superior team than (they / them).
5) After watching him play incessantly on the XBOX that she bought him for his birthday, she
began to suspect that he loved it more than (she / her).
COMMON ERROR #6 – Nothing Personal (Who vs. Which vs. That)
OK, let’s get the easy one out of the way first. “Who” is a personal pronoun. “Which” and “That”
are impersonal. That means (and I fear this may sound condescending, but this is a very common
error) that whenever you are talking about a person, you must use “who” (or whom, of course)
rather than “that” or “which”. I see a lot of sentences like the following: Holden Caulfield is a
character that wishes he were taller,” or, “A man that gets angry easily is not a man”. In both
cases, the pronoun refers back to a human (“character” in the first sentence, “man” in the second),
so you would have to use “who” instead of “that”.
Now for “which” vs. “that”. Both are impersonal pronouns, and the question of when to use each
one is one of the only times when the squiggly green line in Microsoft Word actually knows what
it is talking about. Passive verbs are another, but that’s another story. This is a dying distinction,
but here it is: When the sentence requires a comma immediately before the pronoun in question,
use “which”. If it doesn’t, use “that”. Two examples of correct usage: “He bought a car that runs
on ethanol” and “He bought a car, which is a four-wheeled metal structure.”
1) Paraphrase the following: “He bought a dog that surprises me”
2) Paraphrase the following: “He bought a dog, which surprises me”
3) The best player on the team will be the one (Who / Which / That) improves the most over
the season.
4) Sandy was disappointed when she lost the instructions, (Who / Which / That) are so
important in building a bike.
5) Create a sentence or two that correctly uses the pronouns “Who” “Which” and “That” (based
on the above rules – not something like: “That guy is a member of The Who, but which one is
it?”)