I could write a book about a teacher named Miss Cherubim who put the fear of God into me as a child aged about ten. She taught with a rod in her hand and she taught us, the children in her class, to answer her in parrot fashion in this way: She would begin a sentence with the first part of the answer she wanted, but expect us all to chorus in at the end with the correct word or phrase that completed the answer.Most of the time, I'd say the answer along with the others, but I had no idea what the whole saying meant. I remember one such example. Miss Cherubim would say loudly: "A preposition governs the...?" and she would glare at us until we chorused: "Objective case."
She was perfectly satisfied and we breathed a sigh of relief.I had no idea what a preposition was, nor had I any knowledge of the objective case, but I would not lose the keys to my brains to ask her what each meant or what the whole saying was meant to convey.Anyway, I was to remember Miss Cherubim some years later when my sister and I, as teenagers, chose a card on some important occasion and gave it to a favourite teacher. My sister had told me to choose and write the appropriate words on the card and I wrote: "This is from my sister and I."
The teacher told me to have a seat. I thought she was going to thank me for the card, but she proceeded, very kindly, to ask me what case I should use after a preposition.I was appalled. I thought, "What is she talking about? Preposition? Case?" I was tongue-tied.Very kindly, she explained to me that as I intended to study English at a higher level, she could not let me leave the room without making sure I understood the fundamental rule that after a preposition, I should always use the objective case pronoun–ie, I should have written "This is from my sister and me," because "from" is a preposition and would not take the subject pronoun I, but the objective pronoun "me." I shall explain the difference in the next column.
I am eternally grateful to her for this, even though at the time I was very embarrassed by the experience and went to find my sister, who cheerfully asked me what she had said about our choice of card. "Card?" I said. "She was on about prepositions and case and hasn't even glanced at the card!"I told her, though, that at last I understood what Miss Cherubim had been fulminating about years before, and that at last someone had explained the rule to me.I had to learn the rule the hard way and now I'm passing it on. Miss Cherubim, God rest her soul, must be nodding approvingly and saying, "I told you so. You have to know the rules."
A major rule in English is:Prepositions govern the objective case pronouns. That means that they are followed in a sentence by the objective case pronouns.Pronouns, I was to discover, are a force in grammar to be reckoned with in a most serious way. Apart from verbs, they are the most formidable of all and not knowing them can get us into no end of trouble in Standard English speech and writing. I intend to spend two columns on them. So, brace yourselves!
PRACTICE
Note the underlined prepositions followed by the object pronouns in these sentences:
1. Between you and me, that is a bad mistake to make.
2. The cars waited for Stan and me to cross the street.
Expect a quiz on this rule in a future column.