Consider these statements:
Don't worry about Matt. I will bring he and John home after the party.
Don't worry about Matt. I will bring him and John home after the party.
Is one preferred yet both correct? Is only one correct and the other wrong?
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What is your take on it? You should include this and why you think what you think about it. What research have you done on your end?– Man_From_IndiaCommented May 10, 2019 at 15:03
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@Man_From_India I think "bring him" is right and the other is wrong. If I drop John from the statement, saying "I will bring him home after the party" sounds right. The other sounds wrong. However, a friend of mine thinks "he and John" is preferred.– user3141592Commented May 10, 2019 at 15:13
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Your friend may want to recheck their grammar book...– StephieCommented May 10, 2019 at 15:23
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@user3141592 you are actually right. Him is correct. Even if John is there. Now if you have got your answer, would you take your time to write an answer?– Man_From_IndiaCommented May 10, 2019 at 15:32
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3 Answers
"He and John" in this context is an example of hypercorrection.
English-speaking children are often confused about pronouns and will say things like "Me and John went home." (using an object pronoun in place of a subject pronoun when combined with another noun or pronoun, in particular.) They will then learn that the correct thing to say is "John and I went home." Sometimes people (children or adults) will remember this rule and incorrectly extend it to all cases of (noun/pronoun 1) and (noun/pronoun 2), even when this noun phrase is the object of a verb. So in a nutshell, "he and John" is incorrect in your example because this noun phrase is the object of bring. "him and John" or "John and him" is correct (generally nouns are listed before pronouns in these constructions, so "John and him" is preferable, but this is more a matter of style than grammar).
The correct usage is
Don't worry about Matt. I will bring him and John home after the party.
To help figure this out, I dropped John from the statement to consider "him" and "he" alone. For example,
I will bring him home after the party.
To me, this sounded better. Those posting comments to my question confirmed that this was right and the other wrong.
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+1 for your nice answer. Happy learning! :) But next time onward please write better and clearer wordings. Thank you. Commented May 10, 2019 at 17:19
The subject of the verb "bring" is "I". The object is "him and John". Since the pronoun appears as an object, the objective form is appropriate, which is "him". Your friend thinking that "he" is preferred may be an example of an overcorrection. It may be that your friend has incorrectly used the objective pronoun in cases where the subjective pronoun is called for, been told that is wrong, and incorrectly thought this means that "he" is in general more correct than "him", rather it being more correct *in certain situations".
