Her or She?

[Luckyyellow]

Hello,

I am trying to compose a sentence however am stuck on whether to use her or she at the end. The sentence is as follows:

"She wore a dress of many colours, but none were as vibrant as SHE/HER."

I am leaning towards 'she' but feel the need to double check with this very knowledgeable forum. Any help is hugely appreciated!

 

[GoesStation]

Hi, and welcome to the forum. :hi:

Your sentence is tricky because either choice will look wrong to some readers. Retired English teachers and language pedants (if you'll pardon the expression) will tell you that only the subject pronoun "she" is correct because there's an implied "is" at the end of the sentence. The vast majority of contemporary speakers would naturally choose "her" because the pronoun feels like an object to us. Among the latter group, many will find the subject pronoun jarring and, if asked, would say it's wrong without being able to say why.

My advice? Recast the sentence to avoid the problem. How about "She wore a dress of many colours, all pallid compared to her"?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I wouldn't use either one. One is ungrammatical, the other is stiff.

Better: ". . . none were as vibrant as she was."

That's both grammatical and natural.

(Cross-post.)

 

[GoesStation]

One is ungrammatical … .

I'd prefer to say that prescriptive grammar insists that the object pronoun is wrong. Descriptive grammarians, observing that the object pronoun is generally preferred in use, would presumably explain that choice as an example of a disjunctive pronoun.

 

[jutfrank]

I have to say it took me a little while to understand what the sentence is supposed to mean. I guess it means that she, as a person, was more vibrant than any of the individual colours of her dress. If that's what you mean, I think that using ... than she was is a lot clearer.

Is this sentence part of a story you're writing?

 

[jutfrank]

prescriptive grammar insists that the subject pronoun is wrong.

You mean the object pronoun.

 

[GoesStation]

You mean the object pronoun.

Whoops. Thanks.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I'd prefer to say that prescriptive grammar insists that the object pronoun is wrong. Descriptive grammarians, observing that the object pronoun is generally preferred in use, would presumably explain that choice as an example of a disjunctive pronoun.

Yeah, I guess that's what I meant. Fair enough!

(I know about disjunctive pronouns, but I always took it to be the name for one type of grammar mistake, like double negatives — which descriptive grammarians probably also like.)

Anyhow, welcome, Yellow!

 

[jutfrank]

... like double negatives — which descriptive grammarians probably also like

I can't say I don't think they wouldn't be unsympathetic to them.

 

[GoesStation]

(I know about disjunctive pronouns, but I always took it to be the name for one type of grammar mistake ….

They're an accepted feature of French grammar, seen in many, many common guises. For example, Lui et moi y sont allés hier soir. This could be transliterated as "Him and me went there last night." The French Academy has blessed this usage for centuries. English lacking a regulatory body has to limp along with common use colliding with righteous indignation. I maintain that disjunctive pronouns are widely used by a large majority of native English speakers (though not nearly as prevalent as they are in French) and should be considered acceptable.

 

[Luckyyellow]

Thanks for all the help everyone! I guess I will reword to 'she was'. It is actually going into an illustration, so it is not a story but rather a sentence to describe the image of a woman in a dress if that makes sense? So really it is just that sentence alone that will be put onto the finished illustration as sort of a title.

 

[TheParser]

"She wore a dress of many colours, but none were as vibrant as SHE/HER."

NOT A TEACHER

I think that a sentence should not cause a reader to stop and think about the grammar.

So maybe you should rewrite the sentence something like: "She was more vibrant than any colors of the dress she wore."