"Silly Rabbit! TRIX are for Kids!" Right, or wrong?

I’m guessing they’ve had people point that out before Jack, this may not be the payday you are hoping for.

I however found the grammatical error in “The Wizard and I” from the Broadway show Wicked. It should really be “The Wizard and Me.” Now there is a million dollar catch.

Are you SURE about what you discovered?

If the sentence read, “The Wizard and I was walking down the road,” the “test” I was given, was to eliminate “The Wizard and” from the sentence, and it would then correctly read, “I was walking down the road.”

Substituting “Me” in that sentence would make the sentence read, “Me was walking down the road,” and I know that that doesn’t sound “correct,” at all.

August 28, 2008, 6:58 PM EDT

Well, yes, I am SURE it is right, I came to this conclusion utilizing the very test you describe.

I am also sure that it should read “The Wizard and I were walking down the road.”

What about The King and I?

There’s no way to determine the grammar based on that title. Either “The Wizard and I” or “The Wizard and Me” would be correct, because it’s ambiguous as to whether it’s supposed to be a subject or an object. Which is to say that if they phrased it as “The Wizard and I” originally, then that’s probably what they meant. It’s only once it’s in a sentence and not a fragment that you can determine its grammatical role. So was there a particular sentence you were correcting it in, SuperMouse? Otherwise it’s good either way.

As far as Trix as concerned, it may not make much sense, but they probably intend for Trix to be plural the same way that Cheerios and Pixie Stix are plural.

@SuperMouse: No, “were” would not be correct, because of the elimination of “The Wizard and” would leave the incorrect, “I were walking down the road.”

August 28, 2008, 7:07 PM EDT

@JackAdams. You’re wrong, because were vs. was depends on whether the subject is plural or singular. The test only works for determining the proper pronoun to use, not for determining verb agreement.

“I” is singular, so “I was walking down the road” is correct. However, “The Wizard and I” is plural, so it would be “The wizard and I were walking down the road.” A similar test for determining verb agreement is to substitute in a pronoun that means the same—this pronoun is “we.” “We were walking down the road” is correct.

My high school English teacher is still living (but she never liked me). I’ll contact her to confirm your assertion, then get back to you to admit you are right (and apologize for my error) or stand defiant with my orginal remarks.

August 28, 2008, 7:13 PM EDT

Would you also insist that “My cat and I am hairy.” is the correct agreement?

Sounds good to me! LOL

August 28, 2008, 7:19 PM EDT

While you’re at it, Jack, maybe you should point out to them that they spelled “Tricks” wrong.

No, you can do that.

I’ll defer to your whizdumb. (j/k)

August 28, 2008, 8:44 PM EDT

Damn hypocrite rabbit…he’s never even tried them!

it’s just cruel. always taunting that poor rabbit. someone give him some trix already!!

i think of it as plural, since i don’t eat “cheerio”... but that trix falls into that specific category of being a singular plural, like fish, or oatmeal…

There was a TV commercial showing him actually having a bite of TRIX®. The bowl of cereal was quickly yanked away from him.

The TV ad was in response to a nationwide “vote” by kids all over America, asking if the rabbit should be “allowed” to finally get the cereal. The overwhelming majority of the kids responding, said “Yes!”

September 1, 2008, 8:04 AM EDT

I was in on that vote and voted “YES” for the rabbit. I got back a sticker that said, “Thanks, nice kid!” Shows what they knew.

LOL

You had compassion for a rabbit. How “bad” could you have been?

September 3, 2008, 12:57 PM EDT

It’s a bit like the misuse of the stative verb in the McDonald’s campaign:
“I’m loving it” – should be, I love it!