Avoid such expressions as, “America’s champion baseball player,” “Chicago’s best five-cent cigar,” “Lake Michigan’s swiftest steamer.”

Somebody else’s

The question whether we should say “This is somebody’s else pencil,” or “This is somebody else’s pencil,” has been warmly argued by the grammarians, the newspapers, and the schools.  If some leading journal or magazine were to write somebody else as one word, others would, doubtless, follow, and the question of the possessive would settle itself.  The word notwithstanding is composed of three separate words,
  ________________________________________________
_________________

128

which are no more closely united in thought than are the three words some, body, and else.  Two of the latter are already united, and the close mental union of the third with the first and second would justify the innovation.

But the words are at present disunited.  A majority of the best writers still conform to the old custom of placing the possessive with else.

“People were so ridiculous with their illusions, carrying their fool’s caps unawares, thinking their own lies opaque, while everybody else’s were transparent.”—­ George Eliot.

Some make a distinction by placing the possessive with else when the noun follows, and with somebody when the noun precedes; as, “This is somebody else’s pencil,” and “This pencil is somebody’s else.”  This distinction is not generally followed.
  ________________________________________________
_________________

129

CHAPTER V

 Pronouns

The correct use of the pronouns, personal and relative, involves a degree of skill which many speakers and writers fail to possess.  The choice of the appropriate pronoun, the agreement with its antecedent, the proper case form, are matters that require careful consideration.

Case Forms

Following am, are, is, was, and other forms of the verb to be, the pronoun must be in the nominative case.

“Are you the person that called?” “Yes; I am him.”  The answer should have been, “I am he.”

“I saw a man trespassing on my grounds, and I think you are him.”  Say, “You are he.”

“It is only me; don’t be afraid.”  “It is only I” is the correct form.

“It was him that struck you, not me.”  Change him, to he, and me to I.

“It might have been him that sent you the present.”  Use he, not him.
____________________________________________________________

_____

130

“It is him whom you said it was.”  The sentence should be, “It is he who you said it was.”

“That was but a picture of him and not him himself.”  Say, “and not he himself.”

After Verbs and Prepositions

When a pronoun depends upon a verb or a preposition the pronoun must be in the objective case.