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This is a portion of a recent reader comment for an article in the Washington Post:

"[Trump] leaves himself open to the charge that he is violating his oath of office"

He is, and so is Ryan and McConnell.

My question is whether the second sentence is grammatically valid.

My gut reaction is that it is not, and it should be written in one of the following ways:

He is, and so are Ryan and McConnell.

He is, and so is Ryan and so is McConnell.

But it really doesn't take much effort to interpret the writer's second sentence as a shorthand form of "He is, and so is Ryan and [so is] McConnell".

My question is whether the writer's shorthand form is grammatically valid.

Updated to show a screen shot of the complete comment from the poster:

readerComment

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skomisa
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    Technically, it should be one of your versions. But it's possible to be over-analytical, and there is certainly nothing wrong with the original, as a reader comment, even though it wouldn't pass muster in an article in The New Yorker. – Hot Licks Feb 21 '18 at 02:37
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    Surely it should be "He does, and so do Ryan and McConnell". You're correct that "Ryan and McConnell" takes the third person plural. (Or should that be "take"...?) – AndyT Feb 21 '18 at 09:45
  • Well you could just say "Ryan, McConnell and him are." – Andre Feb 21 '18 at 16:02
  • @AndyT Using does is an alternative (i.e. He does [leave himself open to the charge]...) but it is not the only option. The original writer's wording is equally valid (i.e. He is [open to the charge]...), but more assertive. – skomisa Feb 21 '18 at 17:30
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    @HotLicks OK, but would the sentence not "pass muster in an article in The New Yorker" for reasons of style, or because it is not grammatically valid?My question is specifically about the grammatical validity of the sentence. – skomisa Feb 21 '18 at 17:34
  • @Andre Your suggestion is concise and grammatically valid, yet is seems unnatural and forced. Is that a sentence that anyone would ever say or write spontaneously? – skomisa Feb 21 '18 at 17:43
  • @skomisa - The ultimate judge of "validity" is the editor of the publication. – Hot Licks Feb 21 '18 at 19:52
  • The WP article does not contain the line you cite, so I tried to look for the original comment in the comment section... there are now 1,931 comments. Why didn't you cite the entire comment? Or at least cite the username to make searching easier? Sometimes what is said before or after can make that difference. – Mari-Lou A Feb 21 '18 at 20:10
  • Oh, well done! And now it's clear the writer is not a very competent speaker. There are a number of minor errors e.g. None of them want (1) to keep Russian (2)... (1) many purists will insist that the verb be singular, i.e. wants and (2) it should either be the Russians or Russia – Mari-Lou A Feb 21 '18 at 20:43
  • @Mari-LouA Fair enough - I have updated the OP to show a screen shot of the complete comment. However, since my question was specifically about whether a sentence was grammatically valid I don't see how the entire comment is relevant. – skomisa Feb 21 '18 at 20:43
  • @Mari-LouA Well the "None of them want(s)..." issue you raised is more interesting than my original question! https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/singular-plural-none.91606/ – skomisa Feb 21 '18 at 20:54
  • @skomisa: There are also posts about the grammatical number of "none" on this site; e.g. “None” as plural indefinite pronoun and the linked questions – herisson Feb 21 '18 at 20:56
  • @skomisa well that’s more like how I would say that’s how I would say it in a normal conversation. For example - “Anyone else going shops or just John?” “Yeah Ryan, McConnell and him are going”. That’s as close I’d get to your original sentences anyway. Another thing is that I was always under the impression that you shouldn’t follow a comma with “and”. Take what you want from that, just thought I’d try to help. – Andre Feb 21 '18 at 21:21
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    @Andre and skomisa: Standard English would call for "Ryan, McConnell and he are going" not "him." A rule of thumb is to drop the extra people as a test. Would you say "He is going" or "Him is going"; since "he" is correct on his own, it is the correct pronoun to use when used in a group. And there is no rule that forbids the comma before the "and"; in fact, some style guides require a comma before the and when listing multiple items in a series (look up "Oxford comma" or "series comma"). – Aster Feb 21 '18 at 22:34
  • @Aster fair enough. I mean I’m not an English graduate or anything. My comments were more about how I’d speak in day to day life as a native English speaker, not that I’d actually say that phrase - it’s just the closest relevant wording. So I suppose while what both of you say could well be “correct”, I’d never say those phrases. Could be different in England and America, but in Ireland it would always be “x, x and him are going” for example. Whether that makes it correct or not isn’t something I’d know much about. – Andre Feb 21 '18 at 22:44
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    @Andre Okay, I wasn't intending to call you out. I also use nonstandard phrasing in my speech, but I figured we should let the OP know what is considered standard, formal phrasing. :) – Aster Feb 21 '18 at 22:54
  • @Aster fair enough yeah, cheers :) – Andre Feb 21 '18 at 23:43
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    @skomisa, AndyT: “He is, …” could be short for “He is open to the charge, …”, but (IMHO) it’s more likely to be short for “He is violating his oath of office, …”. – Scott - Слава Україні Feb 22 '18 at 01:48
  • @Scott - Makes sense, I hadn't spotted that one. – AndyT Feb 22 '18 at 09:06

1 Answers1

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I assume the reply means "he is violating..." and isn't referring to the verb "leaves" (to which the reply would be "he does"). But the question is about the second verb in the reply.

Yes, "are" would be correct: "He is, and so are Ryan and McConnell."

However, adding punctuation might fit the speaker's intent and make it more correct:

"He is, and so is Ryan, and McConnell."

Aster
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    Nice - a minimal correction. Also, the original (without the extra comma) suggests that "Ryan and McConnell" is the name of an entity such as a law firm. – Lawrence Feb 22 '18 at 01:09