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12-13Another form of illogical comparison results when awriter fails to exclude from the rest of the group the itembeing compared.INCORRECT:She is taller than any girl in her class.CORRECT:She is taller than any other girl in her class.13 PRONOUNSPronouns are most often employed as substitutes fornouns, but some can also be used as adjectives or conjunctions.To master pronouns and be able to spot errorsin their use, you need to understand pronoun case (nominative,possessive, objective), pronoun number (singularor plural), and pronoun class (personal, demonstrative,interrogative, relative, indefinite).13A Personal pronounsA personal pronoun indicates by its form the person orthing it takes the place of: the person speaking (first person),the person spoken to (second person), or the personor thing spoken about (third person).SingularFirst-Person PronounsPluralNominative case I wePossessive case my, mine our, oursObjective case me usNominative casePossessive caseObjective caseNominative casePossessive coseObjective caseSecond-Person Pronounsyouyour, yoursyouThird-Person Pronounshe, she, ithis, her, hers, itshim, her, ityouyour, yoursyoutheytheir, theirsthemSome common errors in pronoun case occur frequentlyin everyday speech. Study the following applications tosee if you have been using the correct forms,1. Use the nominative case of a pronoun in a compoundsubject.EXAMPLE:Betty and I watched the Olympics on television.2. Use the nominative case of a pronoun following anyform of the verb to be.This use may just not sound all right to you, but it isstandard American usage. The use of a pronoun in theobjective case here, as in Betty and me..., would flatly beincorrect.EXAMPLES:It is she. The winner was /.3. Use the objective case when the pronoun is the objectof a preposition.EXAMPLES:This is just between you and me.Doug looks like me. (Like, as well as but, can beusedas a preposition.)Nadine made coffee for Allan, Ken, and me.When there are intervening words, eliminate them to findthe correct pronoun to use, "Nadine made coffee for /"sounds ridiculous, yet some people might say, "Nadinemade coffee for Allan, Ken, and /." Similarly, in the sentence(We) (Us) homeowners want better roads" eliminatethe word homeowners to find the correct word: "Wewant better roads,"4. Use the objective case when the pronoun is the objectof a verb.EXAMPLE:The noise frightened Karen and me.5. Use the nominative case for pronouns that are subjectsof elliptical clauses (clauses that are incompleteor unexpressed).At times, we leave words out because they are not necessaryfor the comprehension of the sentence. Such missingwords are called ellipses. In the sentence, "You are abetter player than he," the writer or speaker is really saying,"You are a better player than he is." Notice that,unless we keep in mind the complete thought, it is veryeasy to finish the sentence with the incorrect "...thanhim." "You are a better player than him" is incorrectbecause the objective pronoun him cannot be used as asubject ("You are a better player than him is"). That jobis reserved for the nominative pronoun, he.EXAMPLES:My children are as excited as / [am].She raked more than he [raked],As and than arc subordinating conjunctions that introduceelliptical clauses. Complete the clause to determinethe pronoun case.6. Use a possessive pronoun before a gerund. Just as youwould say My car, you would also say My smokingbothers her.EXAMPLE:We have always regretted her leaving forCalifornia.Possessive Pronoun-Gerund Combination DrillIf you have the habit of using objective-case pronounswith gerunds and gerund phrases, a very common error,try to remember uhis: Gerunds are always nouns; thereforeany pronoun placed before them must always be apossessive pronoun. Here is an easy way to develop anear for the use of the correct pronoun case. The followingsentences are all correct. Just read the list severaltimes, preferably aloud,1. She resented my going out and having businesslunches.25