A while back I posted a blog about Word of Mouth — and in it, I was coming down hard on the service — the manners of the wait staff mostly, and then I followed that up with a blog called Heads Up, where I came down hard again on people whose dining manners left some to be desired.

Well, all I can say is that my readers are MUCH more polite than I (sheesh I hope that’s the right use of I!). Because several of them wrote to me OFF the blog — to my email address — to point out my own very poor grammar when I wrote “the server greeted my guest and I.”

Yikes!

And they’re absolutely correct. I actually do know this rule of grammar, but it got past me when I was writing — but I’m sure I also make the mistake more often than I’d like. Here’s how one reader explained proper usage: “The server ‘greeted my guest and me’ is correct, but “my guest and I” is not. You wouldn’t say, “greeted I and my guest.” In this case you are the object of the greeting and the pronoun has to be in the objective case.”

I do wonder if this reader is or was a former teacher — she explained it so well! But truly, several readers wrote to me outside of the blog and I was struck by how sweet they all were — none of them wanted to post a blog comment pointing out my error. I think they were all too polite (not like yours truly!).

I really appreciate it when readers catch any kind of mistake I make — or when they disagree — it all helps me become a better writer. (I hope!).

If anyone else out there, besides me, is grammatically challenged from time to time — here’s an online quick check site: http://www.drgrammar.org/faqs/

And, big thanks — from me, myself, and I — to those of you who set me straight, grammatically-speaking!