foreign language

You and I vs. you and me

/ Erin Servais / 6 Comments

It seems many of us are still reeling from elementary school teachers who overcorrected use of the pronoun I. How many times did you hear a knitted-sweatered, thin-lipped woman of authority say, “It’s ‘May Johnny and I go to the restroom, not Johnny and me.’”

As a result, many people think me is never appropriate when it actually is. If this is a problem you struggle with, don’t worry. You’re in good company. I hear and I used incorrectly more than I hear it used correctly. In this post I’ll teach you a simple trick to figure out when to use I or me.

Is this sentence correct?

I made dinner reservations for Rex and I.

Incorrect. In this sentence it should be Rex and me. But how can you tell?

Hint: To find out whether to use I or me, simply drop the name or pronoun that goes before and and the word and. Then see if the sentence makes sense. Let’s look at the example again.

I made dinner reservations for Rex and I.

Now drop Rex and.

I made dinner reservations for I.

 

 

Now this sentence sounds wrong, so you know it should be me. Let’s fix it.

I made dinner reservations for Rex and me.

Bingo! Now it’s correct. Let’s try another one.

Rex and me are going to the Renaissance festival.

Drop Rex and.

Me is going to the Renaissance festival.

This sounds wrong, so you know it should be I.

Rex and I are going to the Renaissance festival.

Between you and me
The phrase between you and me is often said incorrectly as between you and I. Between is a preposition, and me is used with prepositions. Here are more prepositions with me:

with: Rex walked with you and me.
to: Rex gave the present to you and me.
from: The letter is from you and me.
between: Between you and me, I think Rex is cute.

If you see a preposition, you know you should use me.

Quiz
Test your skills with this quiz. Fill in the blank with either I or me. The answers are at the bottom.

1. Sandra and _______ are good friends.
2. Would you like to go to the party with Sandra and _______?
3. The flowers are for my mom and _______.
4. Between you and _______, I’m ready for the weekend.
5. She set the appointment for Sandra and _______.
6. May Rex and ______ go to lunch with you?
7. Rex and _______ want to treat you to lunch.

Answers:
1. I 2. me 3. me 4. me 5. me 6. I 7. I

Between you and me, Erin Servais will be excited to learn about your next book project. Learn how to hire her to be your editor: dotanddashllc.com

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What does “prn” mean?

/ Erin Servais / 3 Comments

At my recent doctor’s appointment, she said, “You’ll just take this prn.” (She pronounced each letter: P-R-N.)

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means you’re supposed to take it as needed.”

Suspecting it was a Latin abbreviation, since we were in a medical setting, I asked her what the full-length Latin word/phrase was. She was unsure. She said she was just used to seeing it in the abbreviated form.

So, dear friends, I did an investigation. It took me perhaps twenty seconds, but still, it was an investigation nonetheless.

Prn is short for the Latin phrase “pro re nata.” The doctor was correct in that it means “for an occasion that has arisen; as needed.”

Now you know.

 

 

Squeezing blackheads out of kitty’s face

/ Erin Servais / 6 Comments

Postcard reads: “Are you in the jam, dearie?” “No! Mother, I’m just squeezing blackheads out of kitty’s face.”

I found this antique postcard (I think it’s from the 1930s) at an estate sale a couple months ago. I had to get it because . . . it’s just so weird. Why would someone make a postcard like this? And, what kind of person would actually send it to someone?

Then I got to wondering whether there is another meaning of blackhead that I didn’t know. Certainly, I thought, there couldn’t be a big market in the 1930s (or any time, I hope) for cards about facial secretions.

Merriam-Webster’s first definition of blackhead is: any of various birds with more or less black about the head.

It gives the example of a scaup duck, which looks like this:

Webster’s (unabridged online) gives the second definition as: comedo. This is where I learned way more than I wanted to about facial blemishes. Comedo is the proper term for blackhead. Webster’s describes comedo as: a collection of dead cells and oily secretion that plugs a hair follicle and duct of an oil gland and is usually covered with a black dot.

Because I know you want to know more about comedo, here is the Online Etymology Dictionary’s explanation of the origin of comedo: Comedo in Latin means “glutton,” which comes from the Latin comedere, which means “to eat up.” Comedere is an old name for worms that “devour the body.” It came to be used in a medical sense because it was thought that blackheads resemble these worms.

Yeah, gross. But where does this leave us with our creepy postcard?

I hope the blackheads the child mentions refer to “birds with more or less black about the head.” Otherwise, if the child means the other sense, that’s just disgusting.

How English sounds to everyone else

/ Erin Servais / 5 Comments

I got the idea for today’s post from the podcast A Way With Words. I’m super in love with this show, and I recommend it for everyone who is interested in English word origins and other language topics.

Native English speakers have ideas about how languages they do not speak sound. There are certain noises we can string together that imitate our idea of another language—noises that if we were to make to a speaker of that language would sound like gibberish.

Here’s a video of one English speaker speaking what he thinks sounds like several foreign languages:

 Ever wonder how English sounds to people who don’t speak it?

Youtube has a treasure trove of videos showing just this: English-sounding gibberish. Here’s a collection for you to enjoy.

This is a song made for Italian TV in which the singer sings entirely in sounds he interprets as sounding like English. (Also note the awesome background dancers!)

Here is a song in “fake” English from an Argentinian band:

Skwerl is a short film that plays with the same idea. In it, a couple speaks in “fake” English. One aspect I like about it is that even though they are not saying real words, the audience can still understand the emotions and ideas portrayed.

Here are more examples of foreign language speakers’ interpretation of English:

Foreign color idioms

/ Erin Servais / 12 Comments

 

Last time we talked about the ways colors have infused themselves into the English language. Naturally, this happens with other languages, too. But often there’s a little tweak. For instance, in English one could get a black eye, but in French it would be a black butter eye. And in English one could get red with rage, but in Italian it would be green with rage.

Alan Kennedy’s Color/Language Project has collected hundreds and hundreds of idioms involving color from languages across the globe. Below is a small sampling of my favorites from this site. If you enjoy these, I encourage you to check out Alan’s site. You’ll love it.

 

  literal translation meaning
French
passer une nuit blanche to spend a white night to have a sleepless night
blanc-bec white beak an inexperienced but pretentious person
une oie blanche a white goose a naive, silly girl
œil au beurre noir black butter eye bruised eye
Chou vert et vert chou cabbage green and green cabbage six of one, a half-dozen of the other
faire quelqu’un marron to make someone brown to cheat on someone
Spanish
blanca como la nalga de una monja white like a nun’s butt cheek pale
más listo que los ratones colorados more clever than red mice very cunning
un principe azul a blue prince Prince Charming
Italian
di punto in bianco from a point in white suddenly, unexpectedly
verde dalla rabbia green from rage very angry
un giallo a yellow an unsolved mystery
eminenza grigia gray eminence a powerful man controlling the situation behind the scenes
German
Halbgötter in Weiß demigods in white physicians
Heute rot, Morgen tot today red, tomorrow dead here today, gone tomorrow
das Gelbe vom Ei the yellow of the egg a good thing
Blauäugig sein to be blue-eyed naïve, gullible
Nachts sind alle Katzen grau at night all cats are gray It makes no difference (under certain circumstances).
sich eine goldene Nase verdienen earn yourself a golden nose to make a fortune
Polish
mieć żółte papiery to have yellow papers to be insane
myśleć o niebieskich migdałach to think about blue almonds to daydream
szary cztowiek gray person average Joe
Russian
отложить на чёрный день put aside for a black day put aside for a rainy day
голубая мечта light blue desire the thing you crave the most
Hebrew
אין לי מושג ירוק I don’t have a green notion I have no idea
צהובים זה לזה yellow to each other hating each other
טלית שכולה תכלת a light blue prayer shawl innocent & pure (used sarcastically)
Scottish Gaelic
chan ‘eil e geal da he has no white for him he is not fond of him
dearg-amadan a red fool a complete fool
Tagalog
maputi ang tainga white-eared stingy
maitim ang buto bone is black bad person
Greek
άσπρο πάτο! white bottom! bottoms up!
μαύρα μάτια κάναμε να σε δούμε our eyes turned black to see you we missed you for a long time
πράσινα άλογα green horses! an exclamation indicating disbelief; nonsense
πρασίνισε απ’το κακό του he turned green from anger he got very angry