All right, here’s one for all the grammar buffs out there. I have two sisters who are younger than me, and I’d like to be able to differentiate between them in writing and speaking. Moreover, I’d like to do it in a grammatically correct way that’s not confusing. But I’m not sure what that is.
The superlative (“oldest” and “youngest”) is right out, cause there’s only two of them. To refer to one as my older sister and the other as my younger is grammatically correct, but very confusing–who would expect my older sister to be younger than me?
Is there a grammatically correct way to describe them? Or should I just hang that old rule about the superlative and use it?
According to my grammar checker, you are quite correct in the way that you wrote it originally.
“I have two sisters, both younger than me. I was talking to Leah, the older of my two sisters, when my call waiting beeped. It was Rachel, the younger.”
It is also correct to say:
“I have two sisters, both younger than me. I was talking to Leah, one of my sisters, when my call waiting beeped. It was Rachel, the younger.”
It is now obvious that Leah is the elder of the two sisters.
Aha! This is information which was unknown to me at the time. Names being unavailable, I would still probably stick with something like what I originally said (“the older of my sisters,” “the younger”). You can even go with “the older sister” and “the younger sister” and be correct from a strictly grammatical standpoint; you don’t actually make it grammatically confused until you say “my older sister.” While neither “the older sister” nor “my older sister” denote that the sister in question is older than you, the latter connotes it so strongly that my guess is 100 out of 100 native speakers of English would assume that is what you meant.
With all dues respect, I find the construction suggested by ZenBeam to be inherently confusing.
Nice point, Yojimboguy, on the “oldest” implication, but, as you suspect, you might have to put up with a barrage of objections from the more finicky usage mavens (yuck–pardon the “mavens”; don’t know where I picked up that pretentious word). And thanks, Phil Saoud, for finally correcting the grammar in the OP. Love these grammar pickfests!
Although “I” is technically correct, we had a debate about this recently. You can search if you so desire (under GQ) within the last year. The consensus was that so long as you don’t add the predicate (“am”) it is acceptable to say “me” instead of “I.” I, personally, always use “I,” but that does not appear mandatory any more.
Can’t you just say “I was talking on the phone with one of my two younger sisters when the call waiting beeped. It was Rachel, the younge[r][est] of the two.” ?
If you wish to rank two individuals, such as your sisters, the simple comparative will suffice. One is “older” and the other is “younger.” As for the case of the pronoun to be used in a phrase such as “older than me” or “older than I”, that is a no brainer…“older than I” is correct, meaning “older that I am.” “Older than me am” would obviously be ungrammatical.
“Older than me,” although grammatically incorrect, would be understood. The problem with such sloppy usage is that sometimes “than me” and “than I” have different meanings. Consider:[ul]You love him more than I.
You love him more than me.[/ul]The first means “You love him more than I love him.”
The second means “You love him more than you love me.”
