10 Grammar Rules Every Teacher Should Know

To see if “whom” is correct, try replacing it with “him.” If you’d say “he” in the sentence, it’s who. If “him” is correct, it’s whom. Don’t forget the “to be” dilemma when deciding which sounds right.


Rule #4 Use Combination Pronouns Correctly
A quick word about those pesky combined pronouns…you know the ones:

He and I vs. Him and Me

They and We vs. Them and Us

These are actually very simple, if you understand objects and object case (which you now do, right?). Combined pronouns follow two hard and fast rules:

1. 
   “I/We/Me/Us” ALWAYS comes second. (It’s an ego thing. After all, “ego” is a Latin word.)
   

2. 
   Combined pronouns are both in subject case if they aren’t objects. Otherwise, they are both in object case. They are NEVER in different cases (i.e., he and me, him and I or they and us are all WRONG).
   

These routinely cause speakers and writers trouble because we don’t think in these grammatical terms (we always think of ourselves FIRST!). Once you’ve learned to identify what’s an object and what’s a subject, it’s easy!

Short Cut
The tried-and-true way to see if your combined pronouns are correct is to drop one and see if the sentence makes sense. So: