# EN: he is <comparative> than I/me - pronoun for comparison



## Alephbethgimel

Are all following sentences correct to express the equality comparison?
1) You are taller than me
2) You are taller than I am
3) You are taller than I

or

1) He's not as clever as her
2) He's not as clever as she is
3) He's not as clever as she

Thank you

*Moderator note:* Multiple threads have been merged to create this one.


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## xiancee

1) You are taller than me
2) You are taller than I am 
3) You are taller than I

1) He's not as clever as her
2) He's not as clever as she is
3) He's not as clever as she

I think...


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## radagasty

Sorry... I disagree here. _Than_ is a conjunction and not a preposition, which means that _I_ should follow, rather than _me_, as it should be in the same case as _you_ in the first clause.

Consider the difference between:

_Stephen likes Mildred more than I._

and

_Stephen likes Mildred more than me._

In the first sentence, what is being compared is how much Stephen and I each like Mildred, whereas in the second sentence, it is rather how much Stephen likes Mildred and me.

In the original sentence, _you are taller than I (am) _is the only possible form, since there is no justification for the second pronoun to be in the oblique case. (In _Stephen likes Mildred more than me_, _me_ is in the oblique case because it is the direct object of _likes_.)


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## xiancee

So if i understand well in the case of the original sentences only n°3 is right " You are taller than I".
What do you mean by "oblique case"?


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## jann

Even native speakers make pronoun errors in comparative sentences.  The tendency to use an object pronoun when a subject pronoun is needed is common in everday speech, especially in the 1st person.  Here's what what native speakers are taught in school:  write the sentence out fully repeating the verb.  This will force you to use the appropriate pronoun.  You may then omit repetition of the verb if you wish to do so.

In the examples below, the words in parenthesis may be omitted and the sentences will still be grammatically correct.  Including these words, mentally at least, will help you to chose the correct pronoun for the comparison.

You are taller than me  --> You are taller than I (am).
He's not as clever as her  --> He's not as clever as she (is).

Steven likes Mildred more than I (like Mildred)  = Steven likes Mildred more than I (do). 
i.e., we both like Mildred, but I don't enjoy her as much as Steven does

Steven likes Mildred more than (he likes) me 
i.e., Steven likes us both, but he prefers Mildred over me


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## CapnPrep

This is a case where there is one rule for formal speech or writing (which sometimes results in sentences that sound stilted and unnatural to many speakers) and another rule for less formal registers (which results in sentences that grammar books and teachers usually say are wrong). It's best to be aware of both usages, and the disagreements and uncertainty that can arise.

If you have a lot of free time on your hands, you can read this monster thread in English Only (which is only one of many):
* I/me, he/him: Than me or than I?; than him or than he?; etc, etc *


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## bluebaron

[…]
Here's the answer:
Rule number 1057 from The Gregg English Reference Manual Seventh Canadian Edition:
When a pronoun follows than or as in a comparison, determine the correct form of the pronoun by mentally supplying any missing words.

She writes better than I.  (She writes better than I do.)

I like you better than him. (I like you better than I like him.)
BUT: I like you better than he. (I like you better than he does.)

Joe is not as talented as she. (Joe is not as talented as she is.)

[…]


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## chamby

HELLO to all of you,
I was wondering if "she's older than I" was correct. I would have said "....older than I AM "or" .....older than ME". Trying to check it out, I found an  example which I don't understand: 
"you are nicer than they are" is correct whereas "you are nicer than them" is not.
Could anyone explain to me why the second isn't.
THANK YOU for your answers.


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## Donaldos

De façon générale, tu peux toujours utiliser la forme complète (_she's younger *than I am*_) qui n'est pas contestée.

En revanche, tu entendras probablement bien plus souvent la construction faisant intervenir le pronom objet (_she's younger *than me*_) qui fait partie du langage courant mais qui est souvent considérée comme moins "correcte" du point de vue grammatical.

Reste la forme elliptique (_she is younger *than I*_) sans doute moins commune quoique grammaticalement correcte et attestée. La façon dont elle sera perçue dépendra beaucoup - sans doute plus que  pour les autres constructions - de la sensibilité du locuteur.


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## gordeldier

From instinct alone, I would say:she's older than me 
she's older than I am 
she's older than I ​So, in short, I agree with you. Although the last one is certainly understandable, it sounds rather contrived.

I would guess that this can be explained grammatically by saying that one must either use the accusative case (i.e. an object) after _than_ (thus 'me' and not 'I'), or a clause (thus the nominative case, i.e. the subject 'I').

Thus:she's older than us 
she's older than we are 
she's older than we ​Here, I think it's fair to say that the last sentence is definitely wrong.

For the second question:you are nicer than them *√*
you are nicer than they are *√*
you are nicer than they *X*​I don't think the first one is wrong at all, though I would probably be inclined to use the second but I'm afraid that I can't say why!

(Sorry, I hit the limit for ticks and crosses.)


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## Maître Capello

Actually, the common—though "incorrect"—usage is the one mentioned by  Gordeldier, but the grammatically correct way to say this is the  following, although it sounds stilted or even incorrect to many natives:

_She is older than I. _ (= _She is older than I am. _)
_She is older than me. _(incorrect from a strict grammatical standpoint, but widespread)

See also the following threads:
EN: I / me - predicate pronoun
EN: you and I / you and me


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## gordeldier

Point taken. Especially the nice example and explanation of radagasty.

The problem for me is that saying '_she is older than I_' comes across as contrived in many situations. But I don't dispute the correctness according to traditional grammatical rules, nor the utility for making distinctions in certain sentences.

I guess it's a separate discussion about whether grammar should follow practice or vice versa.

I note, though, that the _Collins Cobuild English Grammar_ prescribes the following (2.111):
Note that when 'than' is followed by a pronoun on its own, the pronoun must be an object pronoun such as 'me', 'him', or 'her'.​Showing that there is validity in both points of view.


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## alogbe

radagasty said:


> Sorry... I disagree here. _Than_ is a conjunction and not a preposition...


I don't think that's correct.  _Than_ certainly can be a preposition, as in "Fifty miles an hour is more than the limit" or "you must not spend more than twenty dollars".

The question is whether it can be legitimately be used as a preposition in the OP's examples.  I see no reason why not.  Just because _than_ is correctly used as a conjunction in "She's older than I am", it is not necessarily wrong to use it as a preposition in "She's older than me".

Here are two more examples:

"She's older than she says she is"  (than = conjunction)
"She's older than forty"  (than = preposition)


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## Maître Capello

See also this very interesting note from The Free Dictionary:


> *Usage Note: * Since the 18th century grammarians have insisted that _than_ should be regarded as a conjunction in all its uses, so that a sentence such as _Bill is taller than Tom_ should be construed as an elliptical version of the sentence _Bill is taller than Tom is._ According to this view, the case of a pronoun following _than_  is determined by whether the pronoun serves as the subject or object of  the verb that is "understood." Thus, the standard rule requires _Pat is taller than I_ (not _me_) on the assumption that this sentence is elliptical for _Pat is taller than I am_ but allows _The news surprised Pat more than me,_ since this sentence is taken as elliptical for _The news surprised Pat more than it surprised me._ However, _than_ is quite commonly treated as a preposition when followed by an isolated noun phrase, and as such occurs with a pronoun in the objective case: _John is taller than me._ Though this usage is still widely regarded as incorrect, it is predominant in speech and has reputable literary precedent…


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## alogbe

Gordeldier writes: "... showing that there is validity in both points of view"

I don't think it does that; it only shows that there are two points of view.  One of them may still be wrong!

The grammarians mentioned by Maître C are "insisting" that because _than_ is often used as a conjunction, it can never be used as a preposition.  This is logical nonsense.

Their "elliptical sentence" argument is valid, but it does not explain my earlier examples:

_You must not spend more than twenty dollars.
She's older than forty._

- nor these:

_Five tons will be more than enough.
He should be here no later than six o'clock.
You must work harder than that._

If I am right and _than_ can be a preposition, then perhaps "John is taller than I" and "John is taller than me" are both acceptable.  

In any case I am reasonably sure that 99% of native English speakers would say (or write) "John is taller than me".  If that's true, I wonder whether it really means anything to say that something is "grammatically incorrect" when it's almost universal usage.


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## Maître Capello

alogbe said:


> Their "elliptical sentence" argument is valid, but it does not explain my earlier examples:
> _You must not spend more than twenty dollars.
> She's older than forty.
> _[…]
> If I am right and _than_ can be a preposition, then perhaps "John is taller than I" and "John is taller than me" are both acceptable.


This is a good point. I agree that it would be quite a stretch to consider _than_ as a conjunction in your examples…


> In any case I am reasonably sure that 99% of native English speakers would say (or write) "John is taller than me".  If that's true, I wonder whether it really means anything to say that something is "grammatically incorrect" when it's almost universal usage.


I agree, though only partially because the majority of people definitely can be wrong. At any rate, *in speech*, I would always use the "incorrect" pronoun unless I want to be taken for a non native…


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