Grammar enthusiasts love June Casagrande

Thanks for the article by June Casagrande titled, “Who has this

answer?” I really enjoyed it because I have encountered that error

made so many times by others. I’ve even encountered someone, in all

other respects very intelligent, who tries to create a possessive or

pluralized form of “I”, for example, “my friend and I’z.”

There is no way to know if I’m spelling “I’z” correctly since the

word doesn’t exist in the English language. The closest I can come is

the phonetic spelling of “eyes”. Go figure.

Another error that I see constantly and consistently misused is

“past” and “last.” For instance, when Gulliver dies, it is correct to

say “the last six years of his life”, but otherwise, the correct

usage is “for the past six years, Gulliver has traveled the world.”

Using “last six years” indicates there aren’t anymore years of his

life to spend.

Using “past six years” indicates there are more years of his life

yet to come. I’ve forgotten the helpful suggestion that the teachers

gave us in school to keep those two words straight, but I’m sure you

know.

SHIRLEY WERNER

Costa Mesa

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am one of your regular readers

who is just a bit fanatical on the subject of proper grammar. Today’s

column, how people incorrectly use subject and object pronouns in the

case of multiple pronouns, is my grammatical equivalent of

fingernails on a chalkboard. It always astounds me that intelligent,

highly educated people have such difficulty with such a simple

concept. Keep up the good work.

If only you could get T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times sports

section (or his editors) to understand how to express regret. To

express the sentiment of regret, it is appropriate to write, “I feel

bad.” “I feel badly,” as periodically written by Simers, connotes an

inadequacy in the nerve endings of the fingers that prevents one from

detecting something by touch.

Thanks, again.

GARY NEWMAN

Newport Beach

Thank you, thank you for your column on subjective and objective

pronouns.

The misuse of these pronouns, which has become so common, is also

one of my pet peeves. Last week, our former governor,

Stanford-educated Gray Davis, said, “Thank you for all of the support

that you have given to Sharon and I.”

Can you believe it? I think the real argument for people to get

with it and use our language correctly is that when it is misused,

people often judge you accordingly, and I know in my case, my respect

for their educational background drops a notch or two. While we’re

not supposed to be judgmental, this is reality.

Another one that bothers me, but not as much as the above, and

through common usage I suspect it may now be acceptable, is the

following. Common usage: “Johnny can run faster than me.” I was

taught that it should be “Johnny can run faster than I,” equating it

to “Johnny can run faster than I can run.” The objective pronoun is

now used, it seems to me, about 95% of the time.

Also, with the old rule that a pronoun on either side of the verb

“to be” should be subjective. An example of the correct usage is,

“yes, it is I.” Somehow, I think people think this sounds a little

affected, so they say, “Yes, it’s me.”

Keep up the good work, and it is so refreshing to know that our

primo Daily Pilot writer has such a concern for correct grammar.

RON HENDRICKSON

Newport Beach