Revised as of
4 July 2023
I tend to find that the problems most authors have with these colloquialisms is punctuation and definition. Hard to believe two itty-bitty letters can have such impact.
Any time you remove letters from a word, it is considered a contraction and those letters must be replaced with an apostrophe. And just because you have removed letters doesn’t change what that contraction means!
‘EM will always be them. Unless, of course, it’s short for Emily! In which case, skip the apostrophe as it’s no longer a contraction but a nickname.
‘ER will always be her. Well, unless you’re human and you’ve made a mistake, er, I mean, not that you would or anything . . . And you can leave off that apostrophe again, since er is its own word.
As for ‘IM, ‘e’ll always be him. Okay, okay, unless you’re doing that there IM thing. Which, again, is its own acronym and doesn’t use the apostrophe. Are you sensing a theme yet . . .?
So, other than that, there are no exceptions, er, well, you may want to check out two other posts involving -er: “Air vs Err vs Heir” and “E’er vs Ere vs Err“.
So on that note, let’s just get’er done . . .!
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
If you found this post on “‘Em vs ‘Er vs ‘Im” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.
| ’em | ‘er | ‘im |
|---|---|---|
Runners by hojusaram is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Flickr. — Look at ’em go. |
Kathy Tan Her Lin, June 2019, is Angel’s Secret by KTHL‘s own work and is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Check ‘er out! She’s so cute. |
HIM, The Wiltern, Los Angeles, 2010, is HelsinkiValo‘s own work and is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Look at ‘im singing up there. |
| Part of Grammar: | ||
| Pronoun, third person plural | Pronoun, third person singular referring to a female | Pronoun, third person singular referring to a male |
| A colloquial contraction for them | A colloquial contraction for her | A colloquial contraction for him |
| Examples: | ||
| Up and at ’em.
Up and at them. I can take ’em on. I can take them on. Get ’em. Get them. |
What’s wrong with ‘er?
What’s wrong with her? Git ‘er done! Get it done! |
What’s wrong with ’em?
What’s wrong with him? Up and at ‘im. Up and at him. Go get ‘im. Go get him. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for ‘Em, ‘Er, ‘Im . . .
Apple Dictionary.com
Pinterest Photo Credits
Irene Ryan and Buddy Ebsen from The Beverly Hillbillies – 1970 by CBS Television was uploaded by We hope at en.wikipedia (eBay itemphoto frontphoto back), and is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
