Not exactly the king’s English

I am sure that almost everyone has heard of the “soup Nazi.” Well, my family considers me the “grammar Nazi” because I am constantly correcting their grammar mistakes when they are speaking. As a result, I am always amazed, and horrified, when people who work in the public sector, i.e. reporters, radio commentators, educators, use incorrect grammar. The most common and, to me, the most grating, error is the incorrect use of pronouns — he/him, she/her, me/I.

What has prompted me to write this letter is an article in the March 27 Daily Herald that focused on the retirement of Superintendent Mark Mitrovich. In that article he is quoted: “I can take a look, see what’s out there and make the best decision for my family and I.” He should have said “for my family and me.”

This man has a doctoral degree, is supposedly well-educated, yet he does not even know the proper use of pronouns. The basic rule is that when the subject is a compound one and one of the subjects is you, use the pronoun you would use if the subject was single. He would not have said “and make the best decision for I.”

I have heard “him and me are going ...”; these are all like fingernails on a chalkboard to my ears. The people who are supposed to be educating our children do not know the proper way to speak and therefore our kids are only going to continue bastardizing our language.

I don’t know the solution except to put grammar back into the school curriculum so that our children, and especially our teachers, learn to speak correctly.

Debbie Collander

Naperville