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Grammar Question...
fmz65
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hopefully this is the right board, but does the following sentence have "correct" grammar:
"I've done more work than him."
TIA
"I've done more work than him."
TIA
fmz65 on
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Not completely. Correct would be "I've done more work than he." Because there's an implied "has" after he. You wouldn't say "I've done more work than him has."
Edit: hey, actually, it's not so cut and dry! http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/than-I-versus-than-me.aspx
I think if this is for some sort of formal language quiz, then using "he" is probably a safer bet, but they're both defensible depending on what you're trying to say.
Example from the article: The quick and dirty tip to determining which pronoun is appropriate after the conjunction than is to figure out the pronoun’s role in the implied sentence by mentally filling in the missing words. Are you trying to say Aardvark likes Squiggly more than I [like Squiggly] or Aardvark likes Squiggly more than [Aardvark likes] me?
So in this case, him would be appropriate if you are trying to say "I've done more work than [I've done] him." Which I don't think you are. You're saying "I've done more work than he [has done]."
If you are writing a grammar test and you are asked to correct that sentence, then the answer would be to use the subjective. Still, it's along the same lines as "who" or "whom," where the latter has fallen out of use almost entirely.
"Cut and dried".
Why I aughta...
oughta
*cough*
As a personal example, I used to call "the corner on the opposite side of this intersection" "kitty corner." Here in Baltimore, it's more common to hear "catty corner." I thought "what is that, people saying all weird things like that out here" so I looked it up. It turns out that we're both wrong, and it's supposed to be "qautre corner," and now that I know I simply use neither, preferring to say "catter corner" (rather than trying to affect a french accent for one word). So in general, feel free to say "I do more work than him," but if it bothers you personally, you know the alternatives.
"Catter corner" is really more an Anglicisation* of the word, rather than an improper way to pronounce it, so in my amateur opinion it would be acceptable.
And really, "catty corner" and the subsequent "kitty corner" are more evolution of the term as it is used further from its native source... which is developmental, rather than improper. That's how dialects are formed.
Language is fun.
*or "Anglicization" in the States, but I figure using the British spelling in this sense just makes more... sense.
ought to
oughta is an acceptable slang contraction, much like "gonna" and "goin' "
this is especially true if you're using "why i oughta" as a sentence, although I've seen "oughtta" used. i don't like the double T.
aughta would be "aught to," which would only be used in a sentence like "there was aught to do; it was already over." which no one would ever say these days.