word choice - When to use "we" and "us" — specific SAT example

I am confused about the usage of the words 'we' and 'us'. I am using a Princeton Review 11 SAT tests 2011 edition, practice test 7, section 6, number 29 (just in case anyone actually had that book).

This question was a "find the incorrect word or phrase in the following section" question. For those of you who don't know, this kind of question gives you a sentence. Four different phrases or words are underlined in that sentence and labeled A, B, C, and D respectively. The objective is to find the phrase that is incorrectly used. The particular question I need help with says:

As finalists, Mark and I were both shocked by the decision; it seemed to us that the winner of the contest was far less talented than we.

A: both shocked
B: it seemed
C: far less
D: we
E: No error

So of course, everything seemed right till I got to that last word. My thinking was to use 'us' instead of 'we'. However, the answer in the back of the book says the answer is:

E. There is no error in the sentence as written. The we in (D) may sound strange, but the subject pronoun is correct here.

Can someone please explain this to me? Why am I wrong in saying that the word us should have been used instead?

Answer

This is one of those messy situations the exam writers should know better than to dump you into.

Very rigorous judges have long held that constructions of the type "X is better than Y" (substitute your own comparative for 'better') should be parsed as elliptical reductions of "X is better than Y is", and therefore require Y to be realized in the nominative case, if that's distinct from the objective (which is only the case with the pronouns "I", "he", "she", "we" and "they". That's the "rule" which the exam requires you to follow.

Unhappily for those rigorous judges, the "rule" is not, and never has been, followed in the language-as-she-is-actually-spoken. In ordinary speech virtually everybody has virtually always said "She's better than me", "He's better than her, "I'm better than him", "We're better than them", and "They're better than us". That's the "rule" recognized by most descriptive linguists; and many people who offer advice on how to say stuff promote that rule.

So there's a fundamental disagreement between two schools of prescriptive grammarians: which "rule" should you follow?

This will probably sort itself out on the "me/him/her/us/them" side by the time you retire. But right now you're stuck in the middle.

The "I/he/she/we/they" rule is a bad one. But you're applying for admission to a discourse community which very largely observes it; so choke down your annoyance and follow their rules until you have enough seniority to follow your own rules.

Just wait for them to die and you'll be fine.

word order - Should personal pronouns always be placed at the end of a list?

Today I made a post on Facebook in which I copied a conversation from somewhere else. To preface my post, I wrote:

A conversation between me and John:

There were a number of comments on my use of pronouns, but the one I am most interested in was on the word order. One commentator said that the personal pronoun must always come last. I admit that I was raised to always use the personal pronoun last and simply did not type what I felt was correct, but I honestly don't know whether what I was raised with was correct. So,

Should you always place the personal pronoun last in a list? If so, why?

articles - Should "an" be used before words beginning with "h"?

Should an be used before words beginning with 'h'? What about when the 'h' is silent and is followed by a vowel?

grammar - "sit back down again" — Tautology or no?

I'm curious about whether the phrase "sit back down again" (along with anything similar, like "stand back up again") would be considered a tautology or if another term would be a better fit here. To clarify: I feel plenty confident in saying that it isn't a perfectly grammatical construction (both "sit back down" and "sit down again" are far better options), so my question is specifically regarding what label might fit best in this situation. Again, my educated guess is that it would be a tautology, but I figured I should hear other opinions to be sure!

Any and all help is much appreciated~~ ^^

grammatical number - Using apostrophes with plural and possession

We have something going to print today, but everyone in the office is arguing as to where to correctly place the apostrophe in the sentence (if at all!)

The sentence is:

Bring your event into the palm of your guests hand

Answer

Assuming you're referring to a single "guest", the possessive apostrophe should come before the s:

Bring your event into the palm of your guest's hand.

But I have a suspicion that guests was meant to be plural (because of the context). In that case, you should pluralize palm, hand and guest, and put the apostrophe after the last s in guests:

Bring your event into the palms of your guests' hands.

grammatical number - Either of two [subject]s was/were?

Is it correct to use "were" or "was" in the following?

whenever either of two somethings [were/was] applied [...]

Answer

it's contentious, but I would lean towards "was", since it is acting up the individual "either".

possessives - "Whomever runs it's" or "whomever runs its"?

I know that "its" is the possessive form of "it", but does this rule apply to the possessive form of phrases ending in "it"? Should I say, "the program runs on whomever runs its computer" or "the program runs on whomever runs it's computer" (also I hope I'm right that that should be "whomever" and not "whoever")?

Answer

NOTE: Ignore this first bit and skip down to the EDIT section for the right answer. I misread the sentence on first (and second, and third) reading.

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The closest sentence with correct grammar (but not sense) that matches your own is:

The program runs on whoever runs its computer.

Because the object of the preposition on is not **whomever*, which is wrong, but rather the entire clause whoever runs its computer, in which whoever acts as the subject of the verb runs. The proximity of on is a red herring — or strange attractor, depending on which metaphor you prefer.

Since you can replace its with his — and not with it is — this shows that its must be correct.

However, all that said and done, I am unconvinced that this sentence makes sense. I bet you want:

The program runs on the computer of whoever runs it.

Because I don’t think it runs on people, but rather on computers.

Maybe you could almost get away with:

The program runs on whosever computer runs it.

But that seems a bit off, too.

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EDIT

Now I see what you were going for! You were trying to use the Saxon genitive on the entire noun phrase:

The program runs on (whoever runs it)’s computer.

Which is just like:

The program runs on (the person who runs it)’s computer.

That way it would work the same way as these do:

It’s (the Queen of England)’s castle.
It’s (the man at the door)’s hat.
It’s (my wife and I)’s dinner.
He’s (all of those kids)’ friend.
He’s (all of us)’s friend.

Unfortunately, without parentheses, people will too easily misread it, as in fact did I the first few times through it.

While there is certainly some sense in what you say, it if nothing else garden-paths to the wrong it’s, which makes it look like a mistake even when it isn’t.

I’d still say it runs on the computer of whoever runs it myself, just to make sure.