Grammar poll: Do you say "younger than me" or "younger than I"?

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[匿名]

2009-04-26 8:56 am

I teach English as a second language, and I had an argument with a fellow teacher. She corrected me when I said "My sister is younger than me." She said it should be "My sister is younger than I am" and that since I'm an English teacher, I need to watch the way I speak and model proper grammar. While I agree that "younger than I am" is the grammatically correct way of saying it, my argument is that language is changing to become less formal, especially in spoken English, and "younger than me" is absolutely correct for informal, spoken English. In fact, I don't think I ever hear anyone even say "younger than I." It sounds overly stuffy. So my question for native speakers is, which do you say? "younger than me" or "younger than I (am)"? And for English teachers, do you agree with me or with the other teacher?

更新1:

travellingthrough: You didn't specify--which are you?

更新2:

Also, for those who answer, where are you from? I'm American and I believe "younger than me" is highly colloquial here. I suspect there may be some differences if you are from England or another part of the English-speaking world.

更新3:

To Kate H: I would argue that "ain't" and "don't got no" are dialectal usages which are clearly nonstandard in spoken English, while "younger than me" is standard in spoken English (at least, that is, in spoken American English).

更新4:

Kate H: thanks for your add'l thoughts. I think this may be a gray area. In Michael Swan's Practical English Usage: "In informal English, we often use the object pronouns (me, him, her, us, them) after than. In a more formal style, subject pronouns (I, he, etc) are considered more "correct". [quotations are his] She's older than me. (informal) She's older than I (am). (formal) When the pronoun is used with a verb, only subject pronouns are possible." In A Student's Introduction to English Grammar by Huddleston and Pullum: "The nominative [I] is strongly formal in style, and the accusative [me] is much more common in ordinary conversation.... The more authoritarian and conservative manuals claim that only a nominative is grammatically correct.... But that is to confuse correctness with formality...the accusative variants are unquestionably grammatical in standard English." Still, I suppose I must admit that it's better to err on the side of "correctness." :)

更新5:

thanks to all for your perspectives! Lexico, I also enjoyed your comments.

回答 (8)

[匿名]

2009-04-26 9:24 am

✔ 最佳答案

I am from England, but have lived all over the US for the past 25 years. I say "She is younger than I am." If the "I" is implied, then I just drop the whole phrase (e.g., "My sister is younger." ) The "I am" part is almost like a single word to me. I've NEVER said "She is younger than me," and I'm 42 years old!

Just because something is colloquial doesn't mean that it is correct. "Me and Karen are going to the movies" is also colloquial in spoken American English, as are the phrases "I ain't got no" and "I don't got."

EDIT: I agree with you about "I ain't got no" and "I don't got" being clearly incorrect. You didn't comment on "me and Karen." In the South, "I might could" is also VERY commonly used -- my professors used to say it all the time (it means the same as "I may be able to"). So the question really is ... where do you draw the line? Is the line of correct vs. incorrect the division between what YOU would say or not say? Does it REALLY represent "standard spoken American English," or does it reflect your dialect? What would best prepare your students for job interviews, standardized English tests, etc.? "He did not perform as well as I did" looks much better in writing than "he did not perform as well as me," IMO.

As you can see, I agree with the other ESL teacher on this point :-) Your students will use your speech as a their model.

參考: I'm a university professor, and taught ESL and English composition.

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[匿名]

2009-04-26 9:04 am

Well, the ignorant people say "younger than me" and the educated ones say "younger than I".

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[匿名]

2009-04-26 9:06 am

Younger than I. Old habits die hard. And I'm not even a teacher.

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[匿名]

2009-04-26 9:24 am

Good question. I say "younger than me" taking the "than" as a preposition, and I rarely hear "yougher than I" pattern. Grammarwise, the structural ambiguity arises from the homonym "than" sometiems serving as a conjunction as in "younger than I am young" and sometimes serving as a preposition coupled with the comparative of an adjective. In a nutshell, both are grammatically valid, and prescriptively admissible with sound, reproductive use in natural speech with the majority of speakers preferring the "than me" construction. I'm from southern CA and am familiar with a wide variety of accents due to the huge mingling of populations from all over the US, the non-US Americas, and other overseas countries. So much goes on here all the time! lol

參考: studied linguistics, currently teach ESL/EFL

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[匿名]

2009-04-26 9:24 am

me is used as the object, I is used as the subject (of a verb)

In the sentence She is younger than ... it should be I as it is the subject of the verb "am" (verb understood)

I agree with the other teacher that people who teach should lead by example and the only reason people use colloquialisms is because they haven't been taught the correct usage.

I'm from Australia and I teach primary (I think you call it elementary). We have people over here that say me rather than I but English is English and you are either speaking it correctly or not, no matter what country who are in; be it Spain, Russia, Japan or the U.S.A.

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[匿名]

2013-12-03 10:17 pm

@Lexico is correct! The "than I/ than me" debate is contentious, even amongst the very knowledgeable. Leave it to someone with a background in linguistics to provide an answer not grounded in linguistic bigotry, rather Lexico's is the only comment supported with value-neutral grammatical rationale.

Shame on you, other contrarian grammarians! You assert your position correct, yet you provide no support for your argument. You should know better than me. I mean better than I ... er ... better than I do.

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[匿名]

2009-04-26 9:00 am

I say younger than me.

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[匿名]

2009-04-26 9:16 am

You can say either "younger than me" or "younger than I am," but not
"younger than I."

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[匿名]

2016-10-29 2:45 am

Than Me Or Than I

參考: https://shorte.im/bbCkJ

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[匿名]

2016-09-28 1:36 pm

Than Me Or Than I

參考: https://shrink.im/a9Y6z

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[匿名]

2016-04-06 6:09 pm

For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/avgbQ

A tie---- Forever Young/Rod Stewart & Only the good die young/Billy Joel

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[匿名]

2016-02-26 7:22 am

Traditional grammar prescribes "younger than i" (short for "younger than I am". French however requires "plus jeune que moi" because in that language "je" is deemed too weak a sound to stand alone at the end of a sentence after a conjunction or preposition. This is importance because the French speaking Normans occupied England in 1066 and despised English as the language of the defeated lower classes. The spoke it, when they had to, as the foreigners they were and had no incentive to use correct grammar. The uneducated lower classes tried to imitate them out of snobbery, and many French-based solecisms gradually entered the language. Some as still regarded as barbarisms ("you can't do that there here", but "It am I" gradually change to "It is I" and eventually to "It am I". "She eats more than them" no longer implies cannibalism, but is gradually ousting "she eats more than they". Like most Anglophones, i use "younger than I [am]" at a job interview or when I am writing for publication, but have fallen to using "younger than me" in everyday informal conversation.

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Ling

2015-12-12 9:10 am

She is younger than I (am).

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[匿名]

2015-01-13 9:48 am

" Younger than !."

I am an English teacher.

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[匿名]

2014-04-25 2:25 am

I believer 'younger than me' is correct as 'me' is in the object position. Example: John (subject) is younger than me (object). On the other hand, "I (subject) am younger than him (object).

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