A Word, Please: Hearing out readers’ pet peeves

“For Joe and I,” “I am well” and “so fun” are topping readers’ peeve lists this month. First up, reader Louise: “My big pet peeve is those who say, ‘It was a great trip for Joe and I.’ … I want to scream, ‘You wouldn’t say it was a great trip for I.’ It’s ‘me’!”

There are several standards of correctness in English. Grammar is one. Idiom, or common usage, is another. A subject pronoun like “I” in an object position is ungrammatical, but you can’t say it’s 100% wrong because it’s idiomatic. Still, to anyone who cares about grammar, it’s bad form. Plus, it’s a minor tragedy because people who say “for Joe and I” usually choose “I” because they’re trying to be grammatically correct — and failing. To get these right, follow Louise’s model: Try the sentence without the other person: “A great trip for I” is clearly wrong, so that’s how you know the most grammatical choice is “It was a great trip for Joe and me.”

Reader Mike is peeved by the phrasing “where is it at?” “It grates like fingernails on a chalkboard,” he writes. Over the years, a lot of people have told me they feel the same way. As an editor whose job is to delete needless words, I understand their reaction. The “at” at the end of “where is it” is unnecessary. But unnecessary isn’t quite the same as being wrong, exactly. Consider “where is it at” to be a casualism that rubs a lot of people the wrong way.

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Sherry wrote to ask about people who use “so fun” instead of “so much fun.” “Isn’t that grammatically incorrect to leave out the word ‘much’?” she asked. Actually, it’s OK. When we say, “so much fun,” we’re treating “fun” as a noun. Think of “so much money,” “so much food,” “so much trouble.” The word “much” automatically signals that a noun will follow. And “fun” is indeed a noun. But, like so many other words in English, “fun” isn’t just one part of speech. It’s several, including an adjective. In “a fun day,” for example, “fun” is modifying the noun “day,” meaning it must be an adjective. Can you use an adjective after “so”? Definitely. She’s so smart. That movie is so good. Our day was so fun.

Reader Katie doesn’t like when people who’ve been asked “How are you?” respond with “I am well.” “It’s grammatically incorrect,” she writes. That’s a new one on me. Most people I’ve spoken to believe the opposite: that it’s wrong to say, “I’m good,” and grammatical to say, “I’m well.” But almost everyone with an opinion on this subject misunderstands the grammar.

We’re all taught that “well” is an adverb. So you would use it to modify a verb like “doing” in “How are you doing?” “I’m doing well.” That’s correct. But “well” is also an adjective with many definitions, including “in good health.” So “I’m well” is grammatical.

As a response to “How are you doing,” “I’m good” is a little fuzzier. “Good” can also mean “in good health,” but that’s not one of its primary definitions. So when you say, “I’m good,” people could take it to mean you’re saying you’re well behaved or skilled at something — even though your answer was a grammatically correct way to say your health is good.

Reader Dick had a question about a sentence that appeared in this column when I said of writers: “none of them think that two apostrophes go in ‘men’s clothing.’” Dick asked: “Why do you use the plural ‘think’ rather than the singular ‘thinks’?” My answer: because I wasn’t thinking. Technically, “none” can be singular or plural, depending on the writer’s intent. But in a column about grammar, it’s best to treat “none” as a singular: none thinks it’s OK. If I had it to do over again, I’d write “none of them thinks.”

June Casagrande is the author of “The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know.” She can be reached at [email protected].