Is the grammar correct in this statement? "I don't want the president to be younger than me"?

Question

I want to know the correct english grammar for the "object' in a sentence. Should it be I or me in the case of my question.

Answer 1

The question illustrates the ongoing clash between correct grammar and idiomatic usage (usage that won't sound awkward). When I am editing for a client, what I would do with the sentence would depend on what sort of writing it was, e.g.:

A written conversation or quote: leave it as it is, because we all speak like that unless we're trying to impress someone. Written dialogue should be true to life.

Anything fairly informal such as an article in a parish newsletter: probably mitigate the perceived awkwardness of the correct pronoun by giving it "than I am". (If it's not an article but a letter published in the same newsletter, I might leave it as "me" if that fits in better with the writer's overall tone: a letter from a reader is not taken as representing editorial policy, opinion or, necessarily, grammar.)

Any formal writing: definitely "than I". In which case, you would not be using a contraction such as "don't" earlier in the sentence.

There is definitely no place for "myself" in the sentence, unless you are writing dialogue for a character who is both pretentious and ignorant, and you want this to come across.

Now if I were writing that sentence myself, I would probably have, "I don't wish to be older than the president".

Answer 2

To be a stickler, it should be, "I don't want the president to be younger than I".

Answer 3

"I don't want the president to be younger than I am."

Answer 4

That's right, you forgot the period

Answer 5

than I.

Answer 6

Than I or myself.