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I know that this is a possible duplicate of Is "both" singular? but the question was asked and answered more than 6 years ago and I don't want to reopen a question of 6 years ago. Also, my doubt is not solved by the answers nor by the proposed links.

So, here we are. Should I say...

  • ... both me and my brother is male or both me and my brother are male or both I and my brother is male or both I and my brother are male ?
  • ... both me and my brothers is male or both me and my brothers are male or both I and my brothers is male or both I and my brothers are male ?

I know that this can be an easy question for an English native speaker but it's not for me.

Remark: The old question was about the use of both of so it's slightly different from mine. Also, there is an answer to my case (e.g. Both me and my brother are doing our best at school) but I think that in the comments someone suggests that this answer is wrong.

gvgramazio
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  • Note that males sounds a bit off. Males normally means male animals. Male humans are called men. You could very well use the adjective male, but then it never gets an -s. – oerkelens Nov 26 '17 at 18:55
  • I didn't know that male could be used only as adjective in the human context. Do you think that I should modify the question? – gvgramazio Nov 26 '17 at 19:38
  • The question sounds ridiculous. 'My brother is male' surely doesn't need stating. // 'Both Jo and Peter are female' shows the natural way of phrasing this, though using the plural noun 'females' is not ungrammatical. 'Both me and my friend/s are male' is often used informally. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 26 '17 at 22:53
  • @giusva Male can be used as an adjective for humans. I was talking about the use as a noun, the way you used it in your examples. – oerkelens Nov 26 '17 at 23:08
  • @EdwinAshworth It's an example. It doesn't need to be a serious example. It is used only to check the rules of singular/plural and nominative/oblique. It's obvious that a brother implicitly is also a male. – gvgramazio Nov 27 '17 at 21:40
  • @oerkelens I know that I used male as noun. In fact I point out that I didn't know that male could be used only as adjective, that means that I didn't know that it cannot be used as noun. – gvgramazio Nov 27 '17 at 21:44
  • I hate when someone negatively votes a question without giving feedback about why it is bad in comments. – gvgramazio Nov 29 '17 at 11:34

1 Answers1

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In colloquial speech, it is common to say, "Me and my brother are ..." However, it is technically incorrect as both my brother and I are the subjects of this sentence. It is more grammatically correct to say:

"Both my brother and I are male."

A good way to catch this common error is to break apart the compound subject and try each one alone in the sentence (with the appropriate verb):

"My brother is male." CORRECT

"Me am male." WRONG

"I am male." CORRECT

As oerkelens suggests, you can use male as an adjective. I also switched the positions of the subjects because it sounds more natural to put oneself at the end of a compound subject.

pablopaul
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  • Did you changed the order of the subjects in order to avoid cacophony or for a specific reason? I mean, if it's correct to say Both my brother and I are male is also correct Both I and my brother are male? If not, please tell me why. – gvgramazio Nov 27 '17 at 21:48
  • Both statements are grammatically correct. To my ear, I and my brother sounds either antiquated or poetic, but there's no rule saying you can't order it that way. Here's a short post which talks about this very issue: https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/01/me-and-you.html – pablopaul Nov 27 '17 at 22:19
  • I understand now. In the link there is also a reference to politeness. I am always surprised when I find new examples of how courtesy is intrinsic in English and not an optional thing. – gvgramazio Nov 29 '17 at 11:31