We Or Us
Which of these is correct:
‘We teachers have voted to strike’
Or…
‘Us teachers have voted to strike’?
Have you often felt confused by such a choice? Or perhaps had a debate with a friend or family member over which version is correct?
Well, here’s the answer:
The correct version is: ‘We teachers have voted to strike.’
Why? I’ll tell you.
If you take out the word, ‘teachers’, which is perfectly feasible in this example, you would not then say: ‘Us have voted to strike.’
The difference is ‘we’ is a subjective pronoun, acting as the subject of a sentence (like ‘I’, ‘she’ and ‘they’) whereas ‘us’ is an objective pronoun, which acts as the object of a sentence (just like ‘her’, ‘him’ and ‘them’).
This is why ‘We teachers have voted to strike’ is correct. However, you could argue that ‘Us teachers have voted to strike’ does actually make sense. It does, yes, to a certain extent: someone would probably know what you meant if you said or wrote that.
But it is not correct, and could lead to your reader or listener focusing on how you are conveying your message rather than focusing on the message itself, which is something you should try to avoid.
The confusion surrounding the correct use of ‘I’ and ‘me’ is similar. Which of these would you go with: ‘Jamie played with Bobby and I’ or ‘Jamie played with Bobby and me’? Just as in the example above, remove from this sentence the words ‘Bobby’ and ‘and’. You are left with ‘Jamie played with I’ or ‘Jamie played with me’. Of course, in this case, you would always say ‘Jamie played with me’.
But consider this: ‘Peter and I would help’ and ‘Peter and me would help’. Follow the established pattern: remove ‘Peter’ and ‘and’. Would you say ‘I would help’ or ‘Me would help’? Of course, you would say ‘I would help’.
There. I’m glad that’s cleared up.
Paul Parry
Improve your English.
http://www.EnglishLanguageExpert.com
Clarity. Brevity. Impact. Always.
