On a recent US TV show the host (who I think is rather proper in English) said to a guest "You are smarter than I are!" Is this correct?
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5TV hosts are not paragons of English grammar or style. "I are" is just wrong. The kinder explanation may be that he could have been trying to demonstrate his claim of stupidity with a solecism used as a joke.– RobustoCommented Oct 29, 2016 at 18:46
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4Please provide the name of the show, the host, and post a video clip or transcript, otherwise it's hard to believe someone said that. It might also have been a weak joke, as Robusto suggested..– Mari-Lou ACommented Oct 29, 2016 at 19:24
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2@గణేష్రెడ్డి LOL! Do you really believe that a lyric by Justin Timberlake (or any pop song, for that matter) is exemplary of actual usage? All I can say is Ooo bop shabam shagugamop. The OP says a TV host used that locution, not that it was part of some pop song. I don't believe it either, because nobody who is even mildly acquainted with English would ever say "You are smarter than I are" unless he did so by way of ironically emphasizing his own relative lack of intelligence (which I suspect is what our OP heard. Not being fluent in English, though, Ozay misunderstood the irony.)– P. E. Dant Reinstate MonicaCommented Oct 29, 2016 at 20:21
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1The host likely used the incorrect verb form humorously. The idea is that, by saying this, he emphasizes that he is less "smart" than his guest. This is a mild form of irony, and English speaking audiences would have grasped the host's meaning easily.– P. E. Dant Reinstate MonicaCommented Oct 29, 2016 at 20:27
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3@గణేష్రెడ్డి She said it's hard to believe that someone said that, not that it appeared in a lyric. It is not only songwriters who don't follow grammar. The average person never gives a thought to grammar. People just speak as they are accustomed to; that speaking comes first, and grammarians and linguists come after, collecting usages and utterances and compiling them into the current "grammar." Some of them then try to impose these codified "rules" on that natural speech, but this never works.– P. E. Dant Reinstate MonicaCommented Oct 29, 2016 at 20:34
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1 Answer
It is not possible to say "I are" - instead of "I am" because it is not correct grammatically. But such use (of I are) may be said by people who make mistakes in English by joking (e.g.in a comedy TV show) or seriously.
Also, sometimes it can be heard by missing of the right pronoun. some people -which their diction is not the clearest- can say "they are" in a way which for some people it can be sounds like I are.
Another option to hear correct use of "I are" is only if before the pronoun I someone else is mentioned in addition, for example, "you and I are strong". It is a correct use of I are- continuously...
answered Oct 29, 2016 at 20:50
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1This was not a "mistake". It was almost certainly an intentional usage intended to be ironic and humorous. This is very old "joke", as demonstrated here. Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 20:53
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