Which of the following choices makes this sentence is grammatically correct? or is there a better approach?
It's unclear whether he/him or I/me is/are first in line.
Asked
Active
Viewed 693 times
0
-
1You may also be interested in looking at the other questions about subject-verb agreement in sentences with disjunction. To summarize, most textbooks/usage guides say that proximity agreement is standard (which would lead to "whether he or I am" in this case), but this actually often sounds awkward to native speakers, and as far as I know there is no deep linguistic reason why proximity agreement must be the correct way to resolve the problem. – herisson Aug 21 '17 at 21:12
-
See John Lawler's answer here for a linguist's perspective: “My brother or one of my sisters” — singular or plural? – herisson Aug 21 '17 at 21:14
1 Answers
0
Only one of you can be first in line, so it has to be is. "which of us is first in line" would be a neat way of avoiding the problem posed by whether he is/whether I am.
EditingFrank
- 1,879