The than I/than me debate: MN jury required!

[IAmSherlocked]

Bob is more knowledgeable than I.

or

Bob is more knowledgeable than me?

I used the first version yesterday and was corrected by someone who said it should be the second. If I google it, there seems to be no consensus of opinion. While the general feeling is that the former is grammatically correct, the latter is becoming accepted usage.

Opinions, please! and please agree with me because the person I was arguing with is really smug and needs to be taken down a peg or two

Should be "Bob is more knowledgeable than I" because it is 'short for' the full sentance of "Bob is more knowledgeable than I am"

However the second one seems to be totally accepted in common usage. I'm sure the first is 'right' though

What Heidi said

Yay! Maybe I'll hang out here more often!

It's "more knowledgeable than me". "me" is the accusative, "I" is the nominative. There is no particular reason to think that "Bob is more knowledgeable than I" is short for another sentence, when in fact the version with "me" is perfectly good grammar. This is clearer in some inflected langages like Latin, but in English we do have some rudimentary declension of pronouns, and "than me" is an example.

But pirsm, the sentence is elliptical: the 'am knowledgeable' is the implied end of the sentence.

Also, prism, there is nothing an accusative could do in that sentence, as there is no verb of which it could be the object.

So would you say
"Bob is more knowledgeable than she" or
"Bob is more knowledgeable than we" or
"Bob is more knowledgeable than they"?

Prism is right. It is "than me". To sort of reiterate Prisms post of 23.12, to check when to use I/me, reduce the scenario down to just you...

• so " my friend and I caught the bus" - rather than "my friend and me" because you wouldn't say "me caught the bus"

-or "is there room for Bob and me to come" is correct, you wouldn't say "is there room for I to come"

Yes, prism, you would. Though in those cases it feels more natural to say the sentence in full - Bob is more knowledgeable than we are, etc.

Sorry, sleepwhenidie, could you explain how that technique relates to the construction in question? I'm not sure I understand what you are getting at here.

I must say, I find that hard to believe. You might well say "Bob is more knowledgeable than we are" but I think in reality you would be as happy as anyone else to day "Bob is more knowledgeable than us". Assuming that he actually was, of course. And there's nothing wrong with it, grammatically. I don't think the French wouldn't bother saying "Bob est plus sage que nous sommes", and they're born pedants.

It depends whether you want grammatical correctness or day to day usage, prism!

Well if you think that leaving out part of a sentence is good grammar, you're welcome to your opinion; I don't. In my opinion it's equally acceptable to say "Bob is more knowledgeable than I am" or "Bob is more knowledgeable than me", but saying that there's something correct about another version that leaves a bit out, is just silly, and I don't buy this "implied sentence" justification.

than me.

same as bob is bigger than me, fatter than me and prettier than me.

I can be the archaic.

Nevertheless, it's correct.

Can you tell the difference in meaning between these two sentences?

Bob likes Sarah more than me.
Bob likes Sarah more than I.

If so, then you will understand why "Bob is more knowledgeable than I" is grammatically correct.

prism's right anyway - than me is complete, than i is not implied, it's just wrong.

Good example!

the first says that he prefers sarah.
the second is that i prefer bob.

that means your sentence assumes that the knowledge is the one with feelings....

But not convinced you're correct

I'm not saying there's something correct about it; I have been checking my sources and apparently it is correct. Or as Fowler's Modern English Usage rather brutally puts it, the second version is the one an 'uneducated person' might use!

So it seems that actually Fowler was more knowledgeable than I in the end.

btw - you can't cpmare because the bob and sarah question has 3 comparables.
the knowldge one has two, so there's no confusion as to which is meant, and implication is unnecessary and spurious.

it's Me - see my examples from my first post.

fowler's a snob.
and you were right in the first place.
you're not in the 14th century

Who was right in the first place? I know I was, since it is 'more knowledgeable than I' so thank you.

And why the fourteenth century?