Would you say he is smarter than me is or he is smarter than me am?
No. He is smarter than I (am). It is consistent. If the first person is the subject, then it is always "I". Trust me. I've never lied to you before, have I?
No, I would not say that. Why are you asking this question?
I never disagreed that the first subject is always ‘I’(or ‘she’ or ‘he’).
Me never said that!
I did not say that ‘me’ ought to be followed by a verb like a subject or used as a subject.
You seem to be on a different planet than me am?
I said the opposite… ‘Me’, being an object, is what makes it acceptable to use in modern English when comparing two persons.
I even gave you a heuristic to figure out why, and said to view the comparison (from the preposition, ‘than’) as the “acting upon” like a verb. It makes semantic sense for an object too, because there is one thing that is
being more/less of some property than some another thing that isn’t acting. I can be clearer.
1. In these examples, the three is not “threeing” or doing anything, but
being older is the “act upon” the object of three, and this is interchangeable with me.
“He is older than three.”
“He is older than me.”
[emphasis on objects, sounds perfectly normal]
2. Now compare to the more archaic fashion of having
two subjects, that you are insisting is the only correct way — without usual verbs following the secondary subject:
“He is older than she.”
“He is older than I.”
[emphasis on subjects, note the oddness]
3. Now add the verbs:
“He is older than she is.”
“He is older than I am.”
[emphasis on verbs, now it’s normal again right? But still formal.]
4. Okay now switch them back to modern grammar with objects:
“He is older than her.”
“He is older than me.”
[emphasis on objects, now it’s normal again, right? Just casual.]
Get it?
Every one of these sentences is grammatically correct in English.
Would you argue they were all wrong except the ones you prefer in (2)? Hopefully not
bc I’ve written a text book entry here. Lol.
I have no issue if you want to follow rules of English that will make you sound stiff, formal, and like you live in a different century. The double subject thing sounds like affectation, not education. It’s very inappropriate in many formal contexts.
we can let this go now, thx… it’s gay