Philip Newton's journal

Some people use Twitter a lot, some use it rarely… I’m not sure whether it’s my generation or what, but using it multiple times in a hour, perhaps even for nearly-real-time conversations, seems strange to me; it’s not something I’m used to.

What’s your Twitter usage?

Also, if you want to follow me, I’m “mizinamo” on Twitter. I very rarely post, though, and don’t read very often. But I do tend to add people I like, as a kind of marker of friendship; just be aware that it’s not a very efficient way of communicating with me :)

So, if you want, let me know what your Twitter account is, if I’m not following you already! Comments are screened. (Let me know if you want a comment unscreened.)

D'oh! I messed up on the "number of days in a month". Please ignore that question and use this poll instead. (You'll probably have to use your "Back" button afterwards to get back to this entry, since the extra poll will take you to a dummy entry after submission.)

( Poll on some things whose values differ from person to person, such as number of continents )

I'm in a bit of a quandary right now as to what kind of grammar to use around Amy when it comes to subject vs. object forms of pronouns.

The thing is, I was taught to use the subject form ("I, he, she") in certain constructions, but it seems to me that the object form ("me, him, her") is more natural to a large number of native English speakers.

The subject form is more correct according to conservative, prescriptive grammar; it also matches with what German (which inflects more strongly than English) does. But I wonder whether I should use this form or whether it's dated and unnatural.

The classic example is comparison statements. Does one say "He is bigger than me but she is exactly as big as me" or "He is bigger than I but she is exactly as big as I"? (There is, of course, also "He is bigger than I am but she is exactly as big as I am", where I think everyone uses the subject form of the pronouns, but that seems rather stilted to me, too, as the default form.)

Another example: Amy showed me a picture she had drawn in kindergarten and explained to me who the people on it were: "This is Anne and that am I and that is Nea". Fine in German ("das bin ich") but not only is the verb wrong for English (I think), the pronoun form is also questionable. I think it should be "...and that's ___" (with "is" rather than "are") but I'm not sure whether to say "and that's me" or "and that is I".

And a final, also classic example: responses such as "Who wants some cake? — Me!" or "Who spilt the orange juice? — Not me!", where conservative grammar would have "I" in each case (and German would have "ich").

What do you think? "I" or "me" in that sort of sentence?

And because I like polls: what is the most natural/spontaneous form you would use in the following constructions?

Prompted by seeing Amy playing with an old rotary-dial phone she got from her grandparents, and seeing that she didn't know what to do with the dial (she only picked up the receiver and talked). No wonder, since I doubt she's seen one before, and it's likely she won't be seeing (m)any in the future, either.

(Funny that the little icon for "phone" used in various places is nearly always a rotary-dial one, though!)

This poll concerns the voice post in this entry, in which I say the usernames of the people on my Mutual Friends list.

Ever since Amy outgrew her pram, she's been sitting in something we call Buggy in German.

I wasn't sure what to call it at first, so I went with stroller.

However, it seems that this is a predominantly US word, and I'd like to use a British word instead. I'm not sure what word is used for those things, though -- I got the vague impression that they used to be called pushchairs but that buggy is becoming common as well.

Can you (UK English speakers) help? Is there, perhaps, a difference between the two (e.g. a pushchair is simpler than a buggy); is the difference regional; are both words synonyms and in common use; is pushchair old-fashioned; etc.?

( Here's a poll with a couple of images )

Please fill out the poll first, then read the link if you want.

( link, behind a cut because the URL might give away what I'm trying to reproduce )