He Who Would Correct Grammar Had Better Be Right

Last Saturday, Irv Elman wrote to criticize as ungrammatical the following sentence used by Michael Phillips in his review of “Cyrano de Bergerac”: “Cyrano learns it’s not he she loves.”

It is not ungrammatical. Use of the pronoun “he” is correct in that sentence as it follows the verb “to be”; one must always follow the verb “to be” with a pronoun in the nominative case.

Since for some reason you chose to print Elman’s letter, would it not have been appropriate to follow it with a reply pointing out that he was incorrect? Unless, of course, you thought he was right?!

CATHLEEN DRURY

Thousand Oaks

Just because the relative pronoun “whom” is elliptical in the sentence in question doesn’t mean another pronoun becomes the object. Phillips shows a rare mastery of pronoun case forms that, obviously, is not shared by many, and to paraphrase Mr. Elman, “Him is not that dumb”! Write on, Mr. Phillips!

GENE WIEBER

Bakersfield

Poor Michael Phillips! He goes to the trouble of writing a grammatical sentence (maybe for him it was no trouble) and someone comes along and “corrects” it.

My sixth-grade teacher, Sister Mary Nativity, would have heaved a sigh of defeat to see such perversion. She never would have tolerated ridicule as a vehicle for correction. Her technique was to keep the miscreant after school on game days, especially if that student was a player on the team. It was tough love, but I know a predicate nominative when I see one.

Thanks, Sister.

PAULA MOCHEL

(Former member of the St. Charles basketball team, North Hollywood)

San Francisco

Please do not undermine the efforts of English teachers to uphold the basic rules of grammar in a culture awash in neologisms and “creative” spelling by publishing such “corrections,” no matter how wittily conceived.

JANE OSICK

Instructor of English

La Salle High School, Pasadena