The Editor’s Manual
Free learning resource on English grammar, punctuation, usage, and style.
An infinitive (e.g., “to go”) is split when a word appears between “to” and the verb (“to not go”). It is fine to split the infinitive in English.
Both “who” and “that” can refer to people. “Who” is preferred in formal usage.
Use masculine and feminine pronouns like “he” and “she” instead of “it” for animals with names or whose sex is known. To refer to a species or an animal whose sex is not known, use “it” instead.
Use “who” for animals with names, animals that are personified or anthropomorphized, or to indicate emotional closeness. Use “which” or “that” to discuss a species or an unknown animal without a name.
Both “than I” and “than me” are grammatically correct, since “than” can be used as either a preposition or a conjunction. “Than I” is seen more often in formal usage.
“It’s me” and “This is him/her” are generally acceptable in everyday usage. The strictly correct alternatives, “It is I” and “This is he/she,” are confined to highly formal usage.
“I” is a subject pronoun, while “me” is an object pronoun. In formal styles, use “I” in a compound subject and “me” in a compound object. “Me” is generally preferred in comparisons and after the “be” verb.
Use “you and I” as the subject and “you and me” as the object in a sentence. Avoid hypercorrection. “You and me” is used more often after the “be” verb and in comparisons.
“Neither,” which means “not either,” negates each of two possibilities individually. In formal writing, treat it as singular (“neither is”). In informal usage, it may take either a singular or a plural verb (“neither is/are”).
“None” may be either singular or plural, depending on whether you mean “not one” or “not any.” To refer to the individual members of a group, use a singular verb; for the entire group, use a plural verb.