Too To?
You people just can’t get enough grammar! Who knew it would be such a hot topic? Longtime reader Tania writes in to ask:
Help me settle a bet, WG, since you love this stuff.
a. “I wrote my mother yesterday”
b. “I wrote my mother a letter yesterday”
c. “I wrote to my mother yesterday”
My husband uses a. but it sounds totally wrong to me. I have to use b. or c. In other words, I can only omit the ‘to’ if there’s an object for the verb ‘wrote’.I hear everyone using a. but I hate it.Same with ‘give’.
- Give it me
- Give me the book
- Give it to me.
I can use b. and c. but hate the sound of a. Should I get help?
First off, Working Girl has to say that objects (direct and indirect) have always boggled her mind.
So here goes: Example “b” is a perfectly good, clear English sentence. No problem here. Examples “a” and “c” are cases where the direct object (the letter) is implied. Both sentences do an adequate job of communicating.
However, in WG’s humble opinion, example “c” is better English. It is cleaner, clearer, and more complete. Not to mention more respectful toward one’s mother!
But “a” is not horribly terribly wrong. A person could commit greater sins! Yes, it is informal English. But there is little chance of confusing one’s meaning (unless someone thinks that yesterday you wrote the words “my mother”). And how bad would that be, really?
As for “give it me.” Does someone you know use this structure? How very English-as-a-second-language-ish. Clearly wrong! (”Give me it” is much better, although still weird.)
But let’s throw this out for comment. Can anyone think of a case where “give it me” would be correct?
Working Girl has a headache now, and has to go lie down. Doesn’t anyone have any work questions?
(p. s. Check comment from “A Reader” for an even better explanation!)
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Actually, I think these situations can be quite clearly addressed. In English, we do not differentiate between indirect and direct objects, so that we have to either rely on word order, or the use of “to” to differentiate between them. With word order, the indirect object always precedes the direct object. I gave her (ind obj) the book (dir obj). If we violate this word order, we have to use to: I gave the book (dir obj) to her (ind obj). In the case of writing your mother, either example was right. In both cases, the direct object, a letter, an email, whatever, was implied. “I wrote my mother (a letter)”, or “I wrote (a letter) to my mother”. In some respects “I wrote my mother” is more correct since it doesn’t violate word order. “Give it me” is flat wrong. It violates word order without the “to”. It should be “give it to me”. You could say “give me it”, but in the case of direct object pronouns, it sounds very awkward to maintain correct word order. In almost any case with a direct object pronoun, it is best to place it first in the sentence, followed by the indirect object preceded by “to”. “Give me it”, vs. “give it to me”, “I told her it” vs. “I told it to her”.
Thank you both. I feel validated. Now I’m worrying about whether I really have heard him say “Give it me” or if I’m imagining it! Am I allowed to blame it on being immigrants here?
Letter to my mother (do people still write letters?!)
I would say that a) is American usage. I have only ever heard Americans use it.
“Give it me”
I confess to having heard this expression, but only pronounced with a … Leicester accent! I would say it is uneducated, but I don’t want to insult anyone! Let’s say it’s regional. b) and c) I consider grammatically correct, but my choice would be, “Please may I have it”?
Well, Tania, I guess you should feel only partially validated. Miss M agrees with you. And I do, but without knowing why (so does it count?).
But doesn’t “A Reader” claim that “I wrote my mother” is more correct?
At least I think that’s what he/she said. I got bogged down with all the ind obj/dir obj thingies…… argh.
Well, Miss M might have found the answer – my husband was raised in ….can you guess…Leicester! I would also say it’s uneducated but he has 3 degrees (none of them arts related). He does, however, tend to have adopted more “American speak” than I have while here 12 years. Probably comes from working alongside Americans in industry.
There you are WG, a work topic – adopting a speech pattern like one’s collleagues.
And perhaps A Reader is American.
There isn’t always time to use “Please may I have it?” Have you ever played PIT?