To re-cap, I teach a citizenship prep class on Mondays and Wednesdays.  It is the favorite part of my week.  For so many unexpected reasons.

Last night, Domenica, a beautiful young mother, lingered after class to discuss a fine point of English grammar.  It just warms an old English teacher’s heart. She wanted to know whether it is proper to say,  “this is she” or  “this is her” when answering the phone.  I told her  — this is she — without bothering to preach a lesson about predicate nominatives.  But I went on to explain that for most people this just sounds pretentious, so I choose to side-skirt the issue by saying, “This is Jean.”    We practiced it a few times.   She has it down.  I think she already  knew that “it is I” is correct, and what she really wanted to know is why native English speakers make this error.   Me too.  I mean, “and I also.”